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The Romance of 

Modern Invention 



Containing Interesting Descriptions in Non-Technical 

Language of Wireless Telegraphy, Liquid Air 

Modern Artillery, Submarines, Dirigible 

Torpedoes, Solar Motors, Airships 

etc. etc. 



By 
Archibald Williams 

With 25 Illustrations 



.1 

Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Company 

London : C. Arthur Pearson, Ltd. 
1903 



^ l^^?.S 



nM 



391 



[^ 



\^ Preface 



The object of this book is to set before young people 
in a bright and interesting way, and without the use 
of technical language, accounts of some of the latest 
phases of modern invention ; and also to introduce 
them to recent discoveries of which the full develop- 
ment is yet to be witnessed. 

The author gratefully acknowledges the help given 
him as regards both literary matter and illustrations 
by :— Mr. Cuthbert Hall (the Marconi Wireless Tele- 
graphy Co.) ; Mr. William Sugg ; Mr. Hans Knudsen ; 
Mr. F. C. B. Cole ; Mr. E. J. Ryves ; Mr. Anton 
Pollak ; the Telautograph Co. ; the Parsons Steam 
Turbine Co. ; the Monotype Co. ; the Biograph Co. ; 
the Locomobile Co. ; the Speedwell Motor Co. 

September 1 902. 



Contents 



PAGB 

Wireless Telegraphy 7 

High-Speed Telegraphy . . . . . .28 

The Telephone — Wireless Telephony . . . 39 
The Phonograph — The Photographophone — The 

Telephonograph 54 

The Telautograph 72 

Modern Artillery — Rifles — Machine Guns — 

Heavy Ordnance — Explosives — In the Gun 

Factory 83 

Dirigible Torpedoes 126 

Submarine Boats . . . . . . .143 

Animated Pictures . . . . . . .166 

The Great Paris Telescope 183 

Photographing the Invisible — Photography in 

the Dark . . . . . . . . 194 

Solar Motors . 207 

Liquid Air 213 

Horseless Carriages 224 

High-Speed Railways ..*... 258 

Sea Expresses 272 

Mechanical Flight 284 

Type-Setting by Machinery 306 

Photography in Colours . . . . -317 

Lighting 330 

4 



List of Illustrations 

The Sun Motor Used on the Pasadena 

Ostrich-Farm Frontispiece 

A Corner of Mr. Marconi's Cabin . . To face page lo 

Mr. Marconi's Travelling Station . . „ „ i6 

The Poldhu Tower „ » 22 

GuGLiELMO Marconi „ ,,26 

High-Speed Telegraphy : a Receiving 

Instrument „ ,,28 

High-Speed Telegraphy. Specimen of 

Punched Tape „ „ 34 

A Unique Group of Phonographs . . „ „ 56 

The Telautograph : Receiver and Trans- 
mitter „ ,,72 

The Telautograph, Showing the Princi- 
pal Parts . „ ,,75 

The Telautograph, Specimen of the 

Work Done „ ,,76 

The SIMMS Armour-Clad Motor Car . „ „ 114 

The "Holland" Submarine Boat . , „ „ 144 

An Interior View of the "Holland" . „ „ 150 

The "Holland" Submarine in the Last 

Stages of Submersion . . . . „ „ 160 

The Great Paris Telescope . . . „ „ 188 

The Liquid Air Company's Factory at 

PiMLico . „ „ 214 

5 



List of Illustrations 

M. Serpollet on the "Easter Egg" . To face page 224 

A Motor Car Driven by Liquid Air . „ „ 242 

Diagram of Liquid Air Motor Car . . „ „ 246 

H.M.S. Torpedo Destroyer "Viper" . „ „ 278 
Airship of M. Santos-Dumont Rounding 

the Eiffel Tower „ „ 288 

M. Santos-Dumont's Airship Returning 

to longchamps „ ,5 3°° 

The Linotype Machine „ ,5 308 

The Monotype Casting Machine . . „ „ 312 



The Romance of Modern 
Invention 

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 

One day in 1845 a man named Tawell, dressed as a 
Quaker, stepped into a train at Slough Station on the 
Great Western Railway, and travelled to London. 
When he arrived in London the innocent-looking 
Quaker was arrested, much to his amazement and 
dismay, on the charge of having committed a foul 
murder in the neighbourhood of Slough. The news 
of the murder and a description of the murderer had 
been telegraphed from that place to Paddington, 
where a detective met the train and shadowed the 
miscreant until a convenient opportunity for arresting 
him occurred. Tawell was tried, condemned, and 
hung, and the public for the first time generally 
reahsed^ the power for good dormant in the as yet 
little developed electric telegraph. 

Thirteen years later two vessels met in mid-Atlantic 
laden with cables which they joined and paid out in 
opposite directions, till Ireland and Newfoundland 
were reached. The first electric message passed on 

7 



Romance of Modern Invention 

August 7th of that year from the New World to the 
Old. The telegraph had now become a world- 
power. 

The third epoch-making event in its history is of 
recent date. On December 12, 1901^ Guglielmo 
Marconi, a young Italian, famous all over the world 
when but twenty-two years old, suddenly sprang into 
yet greater fame. At Hospital Point, Newfoundland, 
he heard by means of a kite, a long wire, a delicate 
tube full of tiny particles of metal, and a telephone 
ear-piece, signals transmitted from far-off Cornwall 
by his colleagues. No wires connected Poldhu, the 
Cornish station, and Hospital Point. The three short 
dot signals, which in the Morse code signify the letter 
S, had been borne from place to place by the limitless, 
mysterious ether, that strange substance of which we 
now hear so much, of which wise men declare we 
know so little. 

Marconi's great achievement, which was of im- 
mense importance, naturally astonished the world. 
Of course, there were not wanting those who dis- 
credited the report. Others, on the contrary, were 
seized w^ith panic and showed their readiness to 
believe that the Atlantic had been spanned aerially, 
by selling ofT their shares in cable companies. To 
use the language of the money-market, there was a 
temporary ^' slump " in cable shares. The world 
again woke up — this time to the fact that experiments 
of which it had heard faintly had at last culminated in 
a great triumph, marvellous in itself, and yet probably 

8 



Wireless Telegraphy 

nothing in comparison with the revolution in the 
transmission of news that it heralded. 

The subject of Wireless Telegraphy is so wide 
that to treat it fully in the compass of a single 
chapter is impossible. At the same time it would be 
equally impossible to pass it over in a book written 
with the object of presenting to the reader the latest 
developments of scientific research. Indeed, the 
attention that it has justly attracted entitle it, not 
merely to a place, but to a leading place ; and for 
this reason these first pages will be devoted to a 
short account of the history and theory of Wireless 
Telegraphy, with some mention of the different systems 
by which signals have been sent through space. 

On casting about for a point at which to begin, 
the writer is tempted to attack the great topic of the 
ether, to which experimenters in many branches of 
science are now devoting more and more attention, 
hoping to fnid in it an explanation of and connection 
between many phenomena which at present are of 
uncertain origin. 

What is Ether ? In the first place, its very exist- 
ence is merely assumed, like that of the atom and 
the molecule. Nobody can say that he has actually 
seen or had any experience of it. The assumption 
that there is such a thing is justified only in so far 
as that assumption explains and reconciles pheno- 
mena of which we have experience, and enables us to 
form theories which can be scientifically demonstrated 
correct. What scientists now say is this : that every- 

9 



Romance of Modern Invention 

thing which we see and touch, the air, the infinity 
of space itself, is permeated by a something, so subtle 
that, no matter how continuous a thing may seem, 
it is but a concourse of atoms separated by this 
something, the Ether. Reasoning drove them to this 
conclusion. 

It is obvious that an effect cannot come out of 
nothing. Put a clock under a bell-glass and you 
hear the ticking. Pump out the air and the ticking 
becomes inaudible. What is now not in the glass 
that was there before ? The air. Reason, therefore, 
obliges us to conclude that air is the means whereby 
the ticking is audible to us. No air, no sound. 
Next, put a lighted candle on the further side of 
the exhausted bell-glass. We can see it clearly 
enough. The absence of air does not affect light. 
But can we believe that there is an absolute gap 
between us and the light ? No ! It is far easier to 
believe that the bell-glass is as full as the outside 
atmosphere of the something that communicates the 
sensation of light from the candle to the eye. Again, 
suppose we measure a bar of iron very carefully 
while cold and then heat it. We shall find that it 
has expanded a little. The iron atoms, we say, have 
become more energetic than before, repel each other 
and stand further apart. What then is in the inter- 
vening spaces ? Not air, which cannot be forced 
through iron whether hot or cold. No ! the ether : 
which passes easily through crevices so small as to 
bar the way to the atoms of air. 

lo 




o^ 



Wireless Telegraphy 

Once more, suppose that to one end of our iron 
bar we apply the negative '*pole" of an electric 
battery, and to the other end the positive pole. We 
see that a current passes through the bar, whether 
hot or cold, which implies that it jumps across all 
the ether gaps, or rather is conveyed by them from 
one atom to another. 

The conclusion then is that ether is not merely 
omnipresent, penetrating all things, but the medium 
whereby heat, light, electricity, perhaps even thought 
itself, are transmitted from one point to another. 

In what manner is the transmission effected ? We 
cannot imagine the ether behaving in a way void of 
all system. 

The answer is, by a wave motion. The ether 
must be regarded as a very elastic solid. The agita- 
tion of a portion of it by what we call heat, light, or 
electricity, sets in motion adjoining particles, until 
they are moving from side to side, but not forwards ; 
the resultant movement resembling that of a snake 
tethered by the tail. 

These ether waves vary immensely in length. 
Their qualities and effects upon our bodies or sen- 
sitive instruments depend upon their length. By 
means of ingenious apparatus the lengths of various 
waves have been measured. When the waves number 
500 billion per second, and are but the 40,000th of 
an inch long they affect our eyes and are named 
light — red light. At double the number and half the 
length, they give us the sensation of violet light. 

1 1 



Romance of Modern Invention 

When the number increases and the waves shorten 
further, our bodies are ^' blind " to them ; we have 
no sense to detect their presence. Similarly, a slower 
vibration than that of red light is imperceptible until 
we reach the comparatively slow pace of loo vibra- 
tions per second, when we become aware of heat. 

Ether waves may be compared to the notes on a 
piano, of which we are acquainted with some octaves 
only. The gaps, the unknown octaves, are being dis- 
covered slowly but surely. Thus, for example, the 
famous X-rays have been assigned to the topmost 
octave ; electric waves to the notes between light and 
heat. Forty years ago Professor Clerk Maxwell sug- 
gested that light and electricity were very closely con- 
nected, probably differing only in their wave-length. 
His theory has been justified by subsequent research. 
The velocity of light (185,000 miles per second) and 
that of electric currents have been proved identical. 
Hertz, a professor in the university of Bonn, also 
showed (i 887-1 889) that the phenomena of light — 
reflection, refraction, and concentration of rays — can 
be repeated with electric currents. 

We therefore take the word of scientists that the 
origin of the phenomena called light and electricity 
is the same — vibration of ether. It at once occurs to 
the reader that their behaviour is so different that 
they might as well be considered of altogether dif- 
ferent natures. 

For instance, interpose the very thinnest sheet of 
metal between a candle and the eye, and the light is 

12 



Win*lc88 Tr1r[rrnphy 

cut o/r. liul 111', ilx-.':! will v<:/ y icjtrjily <;onv^;y <'jf*,c- 
trifjly. Oil III'-. t.<)ii\t,iiY, ;.'ja^i^J, a fiii\ mini yi:ti that 
i'jx',1'1 r,K-(J/ M,ily, r> lran«parf^/i1, /.i', j^JvftH pa«f»a4^<*/ to 
lij'lil. Aij'l ;j4^un, electricity can h': '.ouvy-fj i<,\ni'\ 
du many <.o/n(;r!i an you \i\r.i.;i^ vyli'Mj/, Ijj'IiI v/iII 
lr:i,v<:! in ',fi;i,if'lil linr", 'oily. 

To ol«-.u ;i7/;ty oin 'lonM', ■//<■ li.iv: only lo l.il^': j|j< 
li;'lilr-,'l o;iij'l)«-, ;ui'l ;i,!'.un IjoM iij> IIj' i/irLi] j^crccn, 
Llf^lil Ho't'i liol p.i/, lliM>ii;'lj^ l/iil )i« ,il 'lo<:'). !'>iih 
t^tllillt: foi Hm: in< t.il .1 7' / y llmi hiiik JilKvj v/jlli a 
;-,r,|iilioi) <,\ ;i,lnin, .iii'l lli* n h:'lil p'dmtiH, hut heat it» 

iAi\ off. Bo tli;i,i li';if .iM'l ' Ir.ctricity ^//// pf.netrate 
v^lial I'i impftn<:l/;i,hl<^ to lij'jil ; v/liil' li/'lii lorcc^,« a 
)>,i'/>:i4((; 'v<:r,in<:ly l>;i,ri<^rj ;i,;.';j,nj',t f>oll) <|i-<||)<jty anri 
li<:;i,t. Aii'l y/'-, i/iirJ / '•,ni<:i/)!j'-» tli.il '>]>' n ^paCft COn* 
v<:yH ail aliic': lioin lli<: '.un fo Hi'-, '-arllj. 

On tiit,r,\iti'f.>^ 7/lj;'.i //«, ',;«ll \oli'l ni;iHf:/", <',l|jf',i vj.iyf.-; 
;j,i'-, iMfJu<:no<:'J, not h'o.iu,'-, 'tli'-i r, want/n;.'^ in tli<t 
■,oli'l in.itt' ;^ (>i)t \ti:i„iM'.t: tl»<: j/i '■•,', no': of :;oni«.t |jin;7 
cIh<: lli;tn <:lli'j ;ifl' ot-, tli': jnt<^/ v<'.nnj^, t'.ljjci iti^^jll, 
(!on'-/'^,')ij'ntly 'i'}-y'.', to t;tk«: ail nr,t;i/ior^ f;o :lfl^;ct>i 
':11m J tli.jt A v,/ y ij)>j'l -,uc/;<^^^/Jo/j ol 7/.i7'', ni;.'^ljf) 
ai't ahl'-, to ',ont/nii'- t|i« n w/.r/ Wn'juyU it-, inl<-*j'iKtic<?*<; 
7/)jc^ca^5 long <:l<:<.ln<, wav</> an. >'> )i,n;jp<:ji:<J tjiat fij<iy 
(Uc (jiiL^lio^i-MivA , Metal on t|j<; <>tjj<:; )j;nj<l wel- 
comes «low vif;ration« (lr\ Ion;' 7/;i.7'.'>y, tint '.>j;<:edlly 
loll; t|j'', /;).j>i'l '•Ji;jk':^ of li;'Jit. lnotl/«j //' Jt <h, jfronJH" 

parent y v. n'J (.on(jn<:'J t'> lif'Jit alone. All f/o'ljef'i are 

tratifjpaienl fo v>nie vanefy o( ray*>, and m.itiy boflJe« 

\to several varieties. Jt may pe/ljapJo even he piovetj 

»3 



Romance of Modern Invention 

that there is no such thing as absolute resistance, and 
that our inability to detect penetration is due to lack 
of sufficiently delicate instruments. 

The cardinal points to be remembered are these : — 

That the ether is a universal medium, conveying all 
kinds and forms of energy. 

That these forms of energy differ only in their rates 
of vibration. 

That the rate of vibration determines what power of 
penetration the waves shall have through any given 
substance. 

Now, it is generally true that whereas matter of 
any kind offers resistance to light — that is, is not so 
perfect a conductor as the ether — many substances, 
especially metals, are more sensitive than ether to 
heat and electricity. How quickly a spoon inserted 
into a hot cup of tea becomes uncomfortably hot, 
though the hand can be held very close to the liquid 
without feeling more than a gentle warmth. And we 
all have noticed that the very least air-gap in an 
electric circuit effectively breaks a current capable of 
traversing miles of wire. If the current is so intense 
that it insists on passing the gap, it leaps across with a 
report, making a spark that is at once intensely bright 
and hot. Metal wires are to electricity what speaking 
tubes are to sound ; they are as it were electrical 
tubes through the air and ether. But just as a person 
listening outside a speaking tube might faintly hear 
the sounds passing through it, so an instrument gifted 
with an ^^ electric ear " would detect the currents pass- 

14 



Wireless Telegraphy 

ing through the wire. Wireless telegraphy is possible 
because mankind has discovered instruments which 
act as electric ears or eyes, catching and recording 
vibrations that had hitherto remained undetected. 

The earliest known form of wireless telegraphy 
is transmission of messages by light. A man on a hill 
lights a lamp or a fire. This represents his instru- 
ment for agitating the ether into waves, which proceed 
straight ahead with incredible velocity until they 
reach the receiver, the eye of a man watching at a 
point from which the light is visible. 

Then came electric telegraphy. 

At first a complete circuit (two wires) was used. 
But in 1838 it was discovered that if instead of two 
wires only one was used, the other being replaced by 
an earth connection, not only was the effect equally 
powerful, but even double of what it was with the 
metallic circuit. 

Thus the first step had been taken towards wireless 
electrical telegraphy. 

The second was, of course, to abolish the other wire. 

This was first effected by Professor Morse, who, in 
1842, sent signals across the Susquehanna River with- 
out metallic connections of any sort. Along each 
bank of the river was stretched a wire three times 
as long as the river was broad. In the one wire a 
battery and transmitter were inserted, in the other a 
receiving instrument or galvanometer. Each wire 
terminated at each end in a large copper plate sunk 
in the water. Morse's conclusions were that provided 

15 



Romance of Modern Inv^ention 

the wires were long enough and the plates large; 
enongh messages could be transmitted for an in-- 
detinite distance ; the current passing from plate to 
plate, though a large portion ol it would be lost in 
the water.^ 

About the same date a Scotchman, James Bowman 
Lindsay of Dundee, a man as rich in intellectuall 
attainments as he was pecuniarily poor, sent signalsj 
in a similar manner across the River Tay. In Sep- 
tember, 1850, Lindsay re:id a paper before the llritish 
Associatu>n .it Dundee, ni whuli he maintained that! 
his expci luuiits and calculations assured him that by 
running wires along the coasts of America and Great I 
Britain, by using a battery having an acting surface of I 
1^0 square feet and mnnersed sheets of 3000 square 
feet, and a coil weighing 300 lbs., he could send I 
messages from Britain to America. Want of money 
prevented the poor scholar of Dundee from carrying; 
out his experiments on a large enough scale to obtaim 
public support. He died in 1862, leaving behind himi 
the reputation of a man who in the face of the greatest 1 
diliiculties made extraordinary electrical discoveries atl 
the cost of unceasing labour; A[\d this m spite oi the-. 
fact that he had undertaken and partly executed a 
gigantic dictionary in fifty different languages ! 

i It is here vvvv^per to observe that tlie term wimUss telegraphy, as applied Ij 
to electrical systems, is misleading, since it implies the absence of wires;; 
whereas in all systems wires are used. But since it is generally undei^stoodl 
that by wireless telegraphy is meant telegraphy without metal c.'ptneiihnSt , 
and because the more improved methods lessen more and more the amount i 
of wire used, the phrase has been allowed to stand. 

16 




M. Miiiroii/'s Tyiivclliiiil Sin lion Jm ll'iirlcss Ti'lii,i>niphy. 

[To face />, f6. 



Wireless Telegraphy 

The transmission of electrical signals through 
matter, metal, earth, or water, is effected by con- 
duction^ or the leading of the currents in a circuit. 
When we come to deal with aerial transmission, ix, 
where one or both wires are replaced by the ether, 
then two methods are possible, those of induction 
and Hertzian waves. 

To take the induction method first. Whenever a 
current is sent through a wire magnetism is set up in 
the ether surrounding the wire, which becomes the 
core of a "magnetic field." The magnetic waves 
extend for an indefinite distance on all sides, and on 
meeting a wire parallel to the electrified wire induce 
in it a dynamical current similar to that which 
caused them. Wherever electricity is present there 
is magnetism also, and vice versa. Electricity — pro- 
duces magnetism — produces electricity. The inven- 
take tion of the Bell telephone enabled telegraphers 
to advantage of this law. 

In 1885 Sir William Preece, now consulting elec- 
trical engineer to the General Post-Office, erected near 
Newcastle two insulated squares of wire, each side 
440 yards long. The squares were horizontal, parallel, 
and a quarter of a mile apart. On currents being sent 
through the one, currents were detected in the other 
by means of a telephone, which remained active even 
when the squares were separated by 1000 yards. Sir 
William Preece thus demonstrated that signals could 
be sent without even an earth connection, i.e, entirely 
through the ether. In 1886 he sent signals between 

17 B 



Romance of Modern Invention 

two parallel telegraph wires ^^ miles apart. And in 1892 
established a regular communication between Flatholm, 
an island fort in the Bristol Channel, and Lavernock, 
a point on the Welsh coast 3J miles distant. 

The inductive method might have attained to 
greater successes had not a formidable rival appeared 
in the Hertzian waves. 

In 1887 Professor Hertz discovered that if the 
discharge from a Leyden jar were passed through 
wires containing an air-gap across which the dis- 
charge had to pass, sparks would also pass across 
a gap in an almost complete circle or square of wire 
held at some distance from the jar. This ^'electric 
eye," or detector, could have its gap so regulated by 
means of a screw that at a certain width its effect 
would be most pronounced, under which condition 
the detector, or receiver, was ''in tune" with the 
exciter, or transmitter. Hertz thus established three 
great facts, that — 

(a) A discharge of static (z.e. collected) electricity 
across an air-gap produced strong electric 
waves in the ether on all sides. 

(d) That these waves could be caught. 

(c) That under certain conditions the catcher 
worked most effectively. 

Out of these three discoveries has sprung the latest 
phase of wireless telegraphy, as exploited by Signor 
Marconi. He, in common with Professors Branly of 
Paris, Popoff of Cronstadt, and Slaby of Charlotten- 
burg, besides many others, have devoted their attention 

18 



Wireless Telegraphy 

to the production of improved means of sending and 
receiving the Hertzian waves. Their experiments 
have shown that two things are required in wireless 
telegraphy — 

(i.) That the waves shall have great penetrating 

power, so as to pierce any obstacle, 
(ii.) That they shall retain their energy, so that a 

maximum of their original force shall reach 

the receiver. 
The first condition is fulfilled best by waves of 
great length ; the second by those which, like light, 
are of greatest frequency. For best telegraphic results 
a compromise must be effected between these ex- 
tremes, neither the thousand-mile long waves of 
an alternating dynamo nor the light waves of many 
thousands to an inch being of use. The Hertzian 
waves are estimated to be 230,000,000 per second ; at 
which rate they would be ij yards long. They 
vary considerably, however, on both sides of this 
rate and dimension. 

Marconi's transmitter consists of three parts — a 
battery ; an induction coil, terminating in a pair of 
brass balls, one on each side of the air-gap ; and a 
Morse transmitting-key. Upon the key being de- 
pressed,^ a current from the battery passes through 
the coil and accumulates electricity on the brass 
balls until its tension causes it to leap from one to 
the other many millions of times in what is called 
a spark. The longer the air-gap the greater must 
be the accumulation before the leap takes place, 

19 



Romance of Modern Invention 

and the greater the power of the vibrations set up. 
Marconi found that by connecting a kite or balloon 
covered with tinfoil by an aluminium wire with one 
of the balls, the effect of the waves w^as greatly in- 
creased. Sometimes he replaced the kite or balloon 
by a conductor placed on poles two or three hundred 
feet high, or by the mast of a ship. 

We now turn to the receiver. 

In 1879 Professor D. E. Hughes observed that a 
microphone, in connection with a telephone, pro- 
duced sounds in the latter even when the microphone 
was at a distance of several feet from coils through 
which a current was passing. A microphone, it may 
be explained, is in its simplest form a loose con- 
nection in an electric circuit, which causes the cur- 
rent to flow in fits and starts at very frequent intervals. 
He discovered that a metal microphone stuck, or 
cohered, after a wave had influenced it, but that a 
carbon microphone was self-restoring, i,e. regained its 
former position of loose contact as soon as a wave 
effect had ceased. 

In 1 891 Professor Branly of Paris produced a 
*^ coherer," which was nothing more than a micro- 
phone under another name. Five years later Marconi 
somewhat altered Branly's contrivance, and took out 
a patent for a coherer of his own. 

It is a tiny glass tube, about two inches long and 
a tenth of an inch in diameter inside. A wire enters 
it at each end, the wires terminating in two silver 
plugs fitting the bore of the tube. A space of -^V inch 

20 



Wireless Telegraphy 

is left between the plugs, and this space is filled with 
special filings, a mixture of 96 parts of nickel to 4 of 
silver, and the merest trace' of mercury. The tube is 
exhausted of almost all its air before being sealed. 

This little gap filled with filings is, except when 
struck by an electric wave, to all practical purposes 
a non-conductor of electricity. The metal particles 
touch each other so lightly that they offer great 
resistance to a current. 

But when a Hertzian wave flying through the ether 
strikes the coherer, the particles suddenly press hard 
on one another, and make a bridge through which 
a current can pass. The current works a '^ relay," 
or circuit through which a stronger current passes, 
opening and closing it as often as the coherer is 
influenced by a wave. The relay actuates a tapper that 
gently taps the tube after each wave-influence, causing 
the particles to </^cohere in readiness for the succeed- 
ing wave, and also a Morse instrument for recording 
words in dots and dashes on a long paper tape. 

The coherer may be said to resemble an engine- 
driver, and the ''relay" an engine. The driver is 
not sufficiently strong to himself move a train, but 
he has strength enough to turn on steam and make 
the engine do the work. The coherer is not suitable 
for use with currents of the intensity required to 
move a Morse recorder, but it easily switches a 
powerful current into another circuit. 

Want of space forbids a detailed account of Mar- 
coni's successes with his improved instruments, but 

21 



Romance of Modern Invention 

the appended list will serve to show how he gradually 
increased the distance over which he sent signals 
through space. 

In 1896 he came to England. That year he sig- 
nalled from a room in the General Post-Office to a 
station on the roof 100 yards distant. Shortly after- 
wards he covered 2 miles on Salisbury Plain. 

In May, 1897, he sent signals from Lavernock 
Point to Flatholm, 3J miles. This success occurred 
at a^ critical time, for Sir W. Preece had already, as 
we have seen, bridged the same gap by his induction 
method, and for three days Marconi failed to accom- 
plish the feat with his apparatus, so that it appeared 
as though the newer system were the less effective 
of the two. But by carrying the transmitting instru- 
ment on to the beach below the cliff on which it 
had been standing, and joining it by a wire to the 
pole already erected on the top of the cliff, Mr. 
Marconi, thanks to a happy inspiration, did just 
what was needed ; he got a greater length of wire 
to send off his waves from. Communication was at 
once established with Flatholm, and on the next day 
with Brean Down, on the other side of the Bristol 
Channel, and 8f miles distant. Then we have — 

Needles Hotel to Swanage 
Salisbury to Bath . 
French Coast to Harwich 
Isle of Wight to The Lizard 
At Sea (1901) 

Dec. 17, 1901, England to America 
22 



i7i 


miles. 


34 


yf 


90 


}f 


196 


}} 


350 


yy 


099 


yy 







^ ^ :~ ir> 



Wireless Telegraphy 

A more pronounced, though perhaps less sensa- 
tional, success than even this last occurred at the 
end of February, 1902. Mr. Marconi, during a 
voyage to America on the s.s. Philadelphia remained 
in communication with Poldhu, Cornwall, until the 
vessel was 1550 miles distant, receiving messages on a 
Morse recorder for any one acquainted with the code 
to read. Signals arrived for a further 500 miles, but 
owing to his instruments not being of sufficient 
strength, Mr. Marconi could not reply. 

When the transatlantic achievement was announced 
at the end of 1901, there was a tendency in some 
quarters to decry the whole system. The critics 
laid their fingers on two weak points. 

In the first place, they said, the speed at which 
the messages could be transmitted was too slow to 
insure that the system would pay. Mr. Marconi 
replied that there had been a time when one word 
per minute was considered a good working rate 
across the Atlantic cable; whereas he had already 
sent twenty-two words per minute over very long 
distances. A further increase of speed was only a 
matter of time. 

The second objection raised centred on the lack 
of secrecy resulting from signals being let loose into 
space to strike any instrument within their range ; 
and also on the confusion that must arise when the 
ether was traversed by many sets of electric waves. 

The young Italian inventor had been throughout 
his experiments aware of these defects and sought 

23 



Romance of Modern Invention 

means to remedy them. In his earliest attempts we 
find him using parabolic metal screens to project 
his waves in any required direction and prevent their 
going in any other. He also employed strips of 
metal in conjunction with the coherer, the strips or 
"wings" being of such a size as to respond most 
readily to waves of a certain length. 

The electric oscillations coming from the aerial 
wires carried on poles, kites, &c., were of great 
power, but their energy dispersed very quickly into 
space in a series of rapidly diminishing vibrations. 
This fact made them affect to a greater or less degree 
any receiver they might encounter on their wander- 
ings. If you go into a room where there is a piano 
and make a loud noise near the instrument a jangle of 
notes results. But if you take a tuning-fork and after 
striking it place it near the strings, only one string 
will respond, i.e. that of the same pitch as the 
fork. 

What is required in wireless telegraphy is a system 
corresponding to the use of the tuning-fork. Unfor- 
tunately, it has been discovered that the syntony 
or tuning of transmitter and receiver reduces the 
distance over which they are effective. An electric 
'^ noise " is more far-reaching than an electric " note." 

Mr. Marconi has, however, made considerable 
advances towards combining the sympathy and 
secrecy of the tuning system with the power of 
the "noise" system. By means of delicately ad- 
justed "wings" and coils he has brought it about 

24 



Wireless Telegraphy 

that a series of waves having small individual 
strength, but great regularity, shall produce on the 
receiver a cumulative effect, storing, as it were, 
electricity on the surface of the receiver "wings'' 
until it is of sufficient power to overcome the re- 
sistance of the coherer. 

That tuned wireless telegraphy is, over moderate 
distances, at least as secret as that through wires (which 
can be tapped by induction) is evident from the fact 
that during the America Cup Yacht Races Mr. Marconi 
sent daily to the New York Herald messages of 4000 
total words, and kept them private in spite of all 
efforts to intercept them. He claims to have as many 
as 250 "tunes"; and, indeed, there seems to be no 
limit to their number, so that the would-be " tapper " 
is in the position of a man trying to open a letter-lock 
of which he does not know the cipher-word. He may 
discover the right tune, but the chances are greatly 
against him. We may be certain that the rapid 
advance in wireless telegraphy will not proceed much 
further before syntonic messages can be transmitted 
over hundreds if not thousands of miles. 

It is hardly necessary to dwell upon the great 
prospect that the new telegraphy opens to mankind. 
The advantages arising out of a ready means of 
communication, freed from the shackles of expensive 
connecting wires and cables are, in the main, obvious 
enough. We have only to imagine all the present 
network of wires replaced or supplemented by ether- 
waves, which will be able to act between points 

25 



Romance of Modern Invention 

(e.g-. ships and ships, ships and land, moving and 
fixed objects generally) which cannot be connected by 
metallic circuits. 

Already ocean voyages are being shortened as 
regards the time during which passengers are out of 
contact with the doings of the world. The trans- 
atlantic journey has now a newsless period of but 
three days. Navies are being fitted out with instru- 
ments that may play as important a part as the big 
guns themselves in the next naval war. A great 
maritime nation like our own should be especially 
thankful that the day is not far distant when our 
great empire will be connected by invisible electric 
links that no enemy may discover and cut. 

The romantic side of wireless telegraphy has been 
admirably touched in some words uttered by 
Professor Ayrton in 1899, after the reading of a 
paper by Mr. Marconi before the Institution of 
Electrical Engineers. 

**If a person wished to call to a friend" (said the 
Professor), '^he would use a loud electro-magnetic 
voice, audible only to him who had the electro- 
magnetic ear. 

<' ^ Where are you ? ' he would say. 

" The reply would come — ^ I am at the bottom of a 
coal mine,' or ^ Crossing the Andes,' or ' In the middle 
of the Pacific' Or, perhaps, in spite of all the calling, 
no reply would come, and the person would then 
know his friend was dead. Let them think of what 
that meant ; of the calling which went on every day 

26 



Wireless Telegraphy 

from room to room of a house, and then imagine 
that calHng extending from pole to pole ; not a noisy 
babble, but a call audible to him who wanted to hear 
and absolutely silent to him who did not." 

When will Professor Ayrton's forecast come true ? 
Who can say ? Science is so full of surprises that the 
ordinary man wonders with a semi-fear what may 
be the next development ; and wise men like Lord 
Kelvin humbly confess that in comparison with what 
has yet to be learnt about the mysterious inner 
workings of Nature their knowledge is but as 
ignorance. 



27 



HIGH-SPEED TELEGRAPHY. 

The wonderful developments of wireless telegraphy 
must not make us forget that some very interest- 
ing and startling improvements have been made in 
connection with the ordinary wire-circuit method : 
notably in the matter of speed. 

At certain seasons of the year or under special 
circumstances which can scarcely be foreseen, a 
great rush takes place to transmit messages over 
the wires connecting important towns. Now, the 
best telegraphists can with difficulty keep up a trans- 
mitting speed of even fifty words a minute for so 
long as half-an-hour. The Morse alphabet contains 
on the average three signals for each letter, and the 
average length of a word is six letters. Fifty words 
would therefore contain between them 900 signals, 
or fifteen a second. The strain of sending or noting 
so many for even a brief period is very wearisome 
to the operator. 

Means have been found of replacing the telegraph 
clerk, so far as the actual signalling is concerned, 
by mechanical devices. 

In 1842 Alexander Bain, a watchmaker of Thurso, 
produced what is known as a '^ chemical telegraph." 
The words to be transmitted were set up in large 

28 




Tlic receiving insirumeut used by Messrs. Pollak & Virag in their high- 
speed system of telegraphy. This instrument is capable of receiving 
and photograpliically recording messages at the astonishing speed 
of 50,000 words an hour. 

[To face f>. 28. 



High-Speed Telegraphy 

metal type, all capitals, connected with the positive 
pole of a battery, the negative pole of which was 
connected to earth. A metal brush, divided into 
five points, each terminating a wire, was passed over 
the metal type. As often as a division of the brush 
touched metal it completed the electric circuit in 
the wire to which it was joined, and sent a current 
to the receiving station, where a similar brush was 
passing at similar speed over a strip of paper soaked 
in iodide of potassium. The action of the electricity 
decomposed the solution, turning it blue or violet. 
The result was a series of letters divided longitudin- 
ally into five belts separated by white spaces repre- 
senting the intervals between the contact points of 
the brush. 

The Bain Chemical Telegraph was able to transmit 
the enormous number of 1500 words per minute; 
that is, at ten times the rate of ordinary conversation ! 
But even when improvements had reduced the line 
wires from five to one, the system, on account of the 
method of composing the message to be sent, was not 
found sufficiently practical to come into general use. 

Its place was taken by slower but preferable 
systems : those of duplex and multiplex telegraphy. 

When a message is sent over the wires, the actual 
time of making the signals is more than is required 
for the current to pass from place to place. This 
fact has been utilised by the inventors of methods 
whereby two or more messages may not only be sent 
the same way along the same wire, but may also be 

29 



Romance of Modern Invention 

sent in different directions. Messages are ^^ duplex " 
when they travel across one another, " multiplex " 
when they travel together. 

The principle whereby several instruments are able 
to use the same wire is that of distributing among 
the instruments the time during which they are in 
contact with the line. 

Let us suppose that four transmitters are sending 
messages simultaneously from London to Edinburgh. 

Wires from all four instruments are led into a 
circular contact-maker, divided into some hundreds 
of insulated segments connected in rotation with the 
four transmitters. Thus instrument A will be joined 
to segments i, 5, 9, 13 ; instrument B to segments 
2, 6, 10, 14; instrument C with segments 3, 7, 11, 
15 ; and so on. 

Along the top of the segments an arm, connected 
with the telegraph line to Edinburgh, revolves at a 
uniform rate. For about -^-^ of a second it unites 
a segment with an instrument. If there are 150 
segments on the ^' distributor," and the arm revolves 
three times a second, each instrument will be put 
into contact with the line rather oftener than no times 
per second. And if the top speed of fifty words a 
minute is being worked to, each of the fifteen signals 
occurring in each second will be on the average 
divided among seven moments of contact. 

A similar apparatus at Edinburgh receives the 
messages. It is evident that for the system to work 
satisfactorily, or even to escape dire confusion, the 

30 



High-Speed Telegraphy 

revolving arms must run at a level speed in perfect 
unison with one another. When the London arm 
is over segment i, the Edinburgh arm must cover 
the same number. The greatest difficulty in multi- 
plex telegraphy has been to adjust the timing 
exactly. 

Paul la Cour of Copenhagen invented for driving 
the arms a device called the Phonic Wheel, as its 
action was regulated by the vibrations of a tuning- 
fork. The wheel, made of soft iron, and toothed 
on its circumference, revolves at a short distance 
from the pole of a magnet. As often as a current 
enters the magnet the latter attracts the nearest 
tooth of the wheel ; and if a regular series of cur- 
rents pass through it the motion of the wheel will 
be uniform. M. la Cour produced the regularity 
of current impulses in the motor magnet by means 
of a tuning-fork, which is unable to vibrate more 
than a certain number of times a second, and at 
each vibration closed a circuit sending current into 
the magnet. To get two tuning-forks of the same 
note is an easy matter ; and consequently a uni- 
formity of rotation at both London and Edinburgh 
stations may be insured. 

So sensitive is this " interrupter " system that as 
many as sixteen messages can be sent simultaneously, 
which means that a single wire is conveying from 
500 to 800 words a minute. We can easily under- 
stand the huge saving that results from such a system ; 
the cost of instruments, interrupter, &c., being but 

31 



Romance of Modern Invention 

small in proportion to that of a number of separate 
conductors. 

The word-sending capacity of a line may be even 
further increased by the use of automatic transmitters 
able to work much faster in signal-making than the 
human brain and hand. Sir Charles Wheatstone's 
Automatic Transmitter has long been used in the 
Post-Office establishments. 

The messages to be sent are first of all punched 
on a long tape with three parallel rows of per- 
forations. The central row is merely for guiding 
the tape through the transmitting machine. The 
positions of the holes in the two outside row^s re- 
latively to each other determine the character of 
the signal to be sent. Thus, when three holes (in- 
cluding the central one) are abreast, a Morse " dot " 
is signified ; when the left-hand hole is one place 
behind the right hand, a ^^ dash " will be tele- 
graphed. 

In the case of a long communication the matter is 
divided among a number of clerks operating punching 
machines. Half-a-dozen operators could between 
them punch holes representing 250 to 300 words a 
minute ; and the transmitter is capable of despatching 
as many in the same time, while it has the additional 
advantage of being tireless. 

The action of the transmitter is based upon the 
reversal of the direction or nature of current. The 
punched tape is passed between an oscillating lever, 
carrying two points, and plates connected with the 

32 



High-Speed Telegraphy 

two proles of the battery. As soon as a hole comes 
under a pin the pm drops through and makes a 
contact. 

At the receiving end the wire is connected with a 
:oil wound round the pole of a permanent bar- 
magnet. Such a magnet has what is known as a 
Qorth pole and a south pole, the one attractive and 
the other repulsive of steel or soft iron. Any bar of 
soft iron can be made temporarily into a magnet by 
twisting round it a few turns of a wire in circuit with 
the poles of a battery. But which will be the north 
and which the south pole depends on the direction 
of the current. If, then, a current passes in one 
direction round the north pole of a permanent 
magnet it will increase the magnet's attractive power, 
but will decrease it if sent in the other direction. 

The " dot " holes punched in the tape being abreast 
cause first a positive and then a negative current 
following at a very short interval; but the "dash" 
holes not being opposite allow the positive current to 
occupy the wires for a longer period. Consequently 
the Morse marker rests for correspondingly unequal 
periods on the recording "tape," giving out a series 
of dots and dashes, as the inker is snatched quickly 
or more leisurely from the paper. 

The Wheatstone recorder has been worked up to 
400 words a minute, and when two machines are by 
the multiplex method acting together this rate is of 
course doubled. 

As a speed machine it has, however, been com- 

33 c 



Romance of Modern Invention 

pletely put in the shade by a more recent invention 
of two Hungarian electricians, Anton Pollak and 
Josef Virag, which combines the perforated strip i 
method of transmission with the telephone and 
photography. The message is sent off by means of 
a punched tape, and is recorded by means of a 
telephonic diaphragm and light marking a sensitised 
paper. 

In 1898 the inventors made trials of their system 
for the benefit of the United Electrical Company of 
Buda-Pesth. The Hungarian capital was connected 
by two double lines of wire with a station 200 miles 
distant, where the two sets were joined so as to give 
a single circuit of 400 miles in length. A series of 
tests in all weathers showed that the Pollak- Virag 
system could transmit as many as 100,000 words an 
hour over that distance. 

From Hungary the inventors went to the United 
States, in which country of " records " no less than 
155,000 words were despatched and received in the 
sixty minutes. This average — 2580 words per minute, 
43 per second — is truly remarkable ! Even between 
New York and Chicago, separated by 950 odd miles, 
the wires kept up an average of 1000 per minute. 

The apparatus that produces these marvellous re- 
sults is of two types. The one type records messages 
in the Morse alphabet, the other makes clearly- written 
longhand characters. The former is the faster of 
the two, but the legibility of the other more than 
compensates for the decrease of speed by one-half. 

34 



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j^-i^^ra^^tmcjnrm. 



sped wens of the piiuchcd tape used for fiausniitfiiig messages by the Pollak- 
Virag system, and of a message as it is delivered by the receiving machine. 

ITo face p. 34 



High-Speed Telegraphy 

The Morse alphabet method closely resembles the 
Wheatstone system. The message is prepared for 
transmission by being punched on a tape. But there 
is this difference in the position of the holes, that 
whereas in the Wheatstone method two holes are 
used for each dot and dash, only one is required 
in the Pollak-Virag. If to the right of the central 
guiding line it signifies a *'dash/' if to the left, a 
^'dot." 

The ^* reversal-of-current " method, already ex- 
plained, causes at the receiver end an increase or 
decrease in the power of a permanent magnet to 
attract or repel a diaphragm, the centre of which is 
connected by a very fine metal bar with the centre 
of a tiny mirror hinged at one side on two points. 
A very slight movement of the diaphragm produces 
an exaggerated movement of the mirror, which, as 
it tilts backwards and forwards, reflects the light from 
an electric lamp on to a lens, which concentrates the 
rays into a bright spot, and focuses them on to a 
surface of sensitised paper. 

In their earliest apparatus the inventors attached 
the paper to the circumference of a vertical cylinder, 
which revolved at an even pace on an axle, furnished 
at the lower end with a screw thread, so that the 
portion of paper affected by the light occupied a 
spiral path from top to bottom of the cylinder. 

In a later edition, however, an endless band of 
sensitised paper is employed, and the lamp is screened 
from the mirror by a horizontal mantle in which is 

35 



Romance of Modern Invention 

cut a helical slit making one complete turn of the 
cylinder in its length. The mantle is rotated in unison 
with the machinery driving the sensitised band ; and 
as it revolves, the spot at which the light from the 
filament can pass through the slit to the mirror is 
constantly shifting from right to left, and the point 
at which the reflected light from the mirror strikes 
the sensitised paper from left to right. At the 
moment when a line is finished, the right extremity 
of the mantle begins to pass light again, and the 
bright spot of light recommences its work at the left 
edge of the band, which has now moved on a space. 

The movements of the mirror backwards and for- 
wards produce on the paper a zigzag tracing known 
as syphon-writing. The record, which is continuous 
from side to side of the band, is a series of zigzag 
up-and-down strokes, corresponding to the dots and 
dashes of the Morse alphabet. 

The apparatus for transmitting longhand characters 
is more complicated than that just described. Two 
telephones are now used, and the punched tape has 
in it five rows of perforations. 

If we take a copy-book and examine the letters, 
we shall see that they all occupy one, two, or three 
bands of space. For instance, a, between the lines, 
occupies one band; gy two bands; and/", three. In 
forming letters, the movements of the fingers trace 
curves and straight lines, the curves being the result- 
ants of combined horizontal and vertical movements. 

Messrs. PoUak and Virag, in order to produce 

36 



High-Speed Telegraphy 

curves, were obliged to add a second telephone, fur- 
nished also with a metal bar joined to the mirror, 
which rests on three points instead of on two. One 
of these points is fixed, the other two represent the 
ends of the two diaphragm bars, which move the 
mirror vertically and horizontally respectively, either 
separately or simultaneously. 

A word about the punched paper before going 
further. It contains, as we have said, five rows of 
perforations. The top three of these are concerned 
only with the up-and-down strokes of the letters, the 
bottom two with the cross strokes. When a hole 
of one set is acting in unison with a hole of the 
other set a composite movement or curve results. 

The topmost row of all sends through the wires 
a negative current of known strength ; this produces 
upward and return strokes in the upper zone of the 
letters : for instance, the upper part of a t. The 
second row ^^ssts positive currents of equal strength 
with the negative, and influences the up-and-down 
strokes of the centre zone, e.g. those of o ; the third 
row passes positive currents twice as strong as the 
negative, and is responsible for double-length vertical 
strokes in the centre and lower zones, e.g. the stroke 
in/. 

In order that the record shall not be a series of 
zigzags it is necessary that the return strokes in the 
vertical elements shall be on the same path as the 
out strokes ; and as the point of light is continuously 
tending to move from left to right of the paper there 

37 



Romance of Modern Invention 

must at times be present a counteracting tendency 
counterbalancing it exactly, so that the path of the 
light point is purely vertical. At other times not 
merely must the horizontal movements balance each 
other, but the right-to-left element must be stronger 
than the left-to-right, so that strokes such as the left 
curve of an e may be possible. To this end rows 
4 and 5 of the perforations pass currents working 
the second telephone diaphragm, which moves the 
mirror on a vertical axis so that it reflects the ray 
horizontally. 

It will be noticed that the holes in rows 3, 4, 5 
vary in size to permit the passage of currents during 
periods of different length. In this manner the httle 
junction-hooks of such letters as ;', w, Vy b are effected. 

As fast as the sensitised paper strip is covered with 
the movements of the dancing spot of light it is passed 
on over rollers through developing and fixing che- 
mical baths ; so that the receiving of messages is 
purely automatic. 

The reader can judge for himself the results of 
this ingenious system as shown in a short section 
of a message transmitted by Mr. Pollak. The words 
shown actually occupied two seconds in transmission. 
They are beautifully clear. 

It is said that by the aid of a special ^' multiplex " 
device thirty sets of Pollak-Virag apparatus can 
be used simultaneously on a line ! The reader will 
be able, by the aid of a small calculation, to arrive at 
some interesting figures as regards their united output. 

38 



THE TELEPHONE. 

A COMMON enough sight in any large town is a great 
sheaf of fine wires running across the streets and over 
the houses. If you traced their career in one direc- 
tion you would find that they suddenly terminate, or 
rather combine into cables, and disappear into the 
recesses of a house, which is the Telephone Exchange. 
If you tracked them the other way your experience 
would be varied enough. Some wires would lead you 
into public institutions, some into offices, some into 
snug rooms in private houses. At one time your 
journey would end in the town, at another you 
would find yourself roaming far into the country, 
through green fields and leafy lanes until at last you 
ran the wire to earth in some large mansion standing in 
a lordly park. Perhaps you might have to travel hun- 
dreds of miles, having struck a *^ trunk " line connect- 
ing two important cities ; or you might even be called 
upon to turn fish and plunge beneath the sea for a 
while, groping your way along a submarine cable. 

In addition to the visible overhead wires that 
traverse a town there are many led underground 
through special conduits. And many telephone wires 
never come out of doors at all, their object being to 
furnish communication between the rooms of the 

39 



Romance of Modern Invention 

same house. The telephone and its friend, the 
electric-bell, are now a regular part of the equipment 
of any large premises. The master of the house goes 
to his telephone when he wishes to address the cook 
or the steward, or the head-gardener or the coachman. 
It saves time and labour. 

Should he desire to speak to his town-offices he 
will, unless connected direct, ^'ring up" the Exchange, 
into which, as we have seen, flow all the wires of the 
subscribers to the telephone system of that district. 
The ringing-up is usually done by rapidly turning a 
handle which works an electric magnet and rings a bell 
in the Exchange. The operator there, generally a girl, 
demands the number of the person with whom the 
ringer wants to speak, rings up that number, and 
connects the wires of the two parties. 

In some exchanges, e.g. the new Post-Office tele- 
phone exchanges, the place of electric-bells is taken 
by lamps, to the great advantage of the operators, 
whose ears are thus freed from perpetual jangling. 
The action of unhooking the telephone receiver at 
the subscriber's end sends a current into a relay 
which closes the circuit of an electric lamp opposite 
the subscriber's number in the exchange. Similarly, 
when the conversation is completed the action of 
hanging up the receiver again lights another lamp 
of a different colour, given the exchange warning 
that the wires are free again. 

In America, the country of automatic appliances, 
the operator is sometimes entirely dispensed with, 

40 



The Telephone 



A subscriber is able, by means of a mechanical con- 
trivance, to put himself in communication with any 
other subscriber unless that subscriber is engaged, in 
which case a dial records the fact. 

The popularity of the telephone may be judged 
from the fact that in 1901 the National Telephone 
Company's system transmitted over 807 millions of 
messages, as compared with 89 millions of telegrams 
sent over the Post Office wires. In America and Ger- 
many, however, the telephone is even more universally 
employed than in England. In the thinly populated 
prairies of West America the farm-houses are often 
connected with a central station many miles off, from 
which they receive news of the outer world and are 
able to keep in touch with one another. We are not, 
perhaps, as a nation sufficiently alive to the advan- 
tages of an efficient telephone system ; and on this 
account many districts remain telephoneless because 
sufficient subscribers cannot be found to guarantee 
use of a system if established. It has been seriously 
urged that much of our country depopulation might 
be counteracted by a universal telephone service, 
which would enable people to live at a distance from 
the towns and yet be in close contact with them. At 
present, for the sake of convenience and ease of 
^' getting at " clients and customers, many business 
men prefer to have their homes just outside the towns 
where their business is. A cheap and efficient service 
open to every one would do away with a great deal of 
travelling that is necessary under existing circum- 

41 



Romance of Modern Invention 

stances, and by making it less important to live near 
a town allow people to return to the country. 

Even Norway has a good telephone system. The 
telegraph is little used in the more thinly inhabited 
districts, but the telephone may be found in most 
unexpected places, in little villages hidden in the 
recesses of the fiords. Switzerland, another mountain- 
ous country, but very go-ahead in all electrical matters, 
is noted for the cheapness of its telephone services. 
At Berne or Geneva a subscriber pays £^ the first 
year, £2, 12s. the second year, and but £1^ 12s. the 
third. Contrast these charges with those of New 
York, where ;;^i5, los. to £^g, los. is levied annually 
according to service. 

The telephone as a public benefactor is seen at 
its best at Buda-Pesth, the twin-capital of Hungary. 
In 1893, one Herr Theodore Buschgasch founded 
in that city a ^'newspaper" — if so it may be called — 
worked entirely on the telephone. The pubUshing 
office was a telephone exchange ; the wires and 
instruments took the place of printed matter. The 
subscribers were to be informed entirely by ear of 
the news of the day. 

The Telefon Hirmondo or " Telephonic Newsteller," 
as the ^' paper " was named, has more than six thousand 
subscribers, who enjoy their telephones for the very 
small payment of eighteen florins, or about a penny a 
day, for twelve hours a day. 

News is collected at the central office in the usual 
journalistic way by telephone, telegraph, and reporters. 

42 



The Telephone 



It is printed by lithography on strips of paper six inches 
wide and two feet long. These strips are handed to 
*' stentors," or men with powerful and trained voices, 
who read the contents to transmitting instruments in 
the offices, whence it flies in all directions to the ears 
of the subscribers. 

These last know exactly when to listen and what 
description of information they will hear, for each has 
over his receiver a programme which is rigidly 
adhered to. It must be explained at once that the 
Telefon Hirmondo is more than a mere newspaper, 
for it adds to its practical use as a first-class journal 
that of entertainer, lecturer, preacher, actor, poli- 
tical speaker, musician. The Telefon offices are 
connected by wire with the theatres, churches, and 
public halls, drawing from them by means of special 
receivers the sounds that are going on there, and 
transmitting them again over the wires to the thousands 
of subscribers. The Buda-Pesthian has therefore only 
to consult his programme to see when he will be 
in touch with his favourite actor or preacher. The 
ladies know just when to expect the latest hints about 
the fashions of the day. Nor are the children for- 
gotten, for a special period is set aside weekly for their 
entertainment in the shape of lectures or concerts. 

The advertising fiend, too, must have his say, though 
he pays dearly for it. On payment of a florin the 
stentors will shout the virtues of his wares for a space 
of twelve seconds. The advertising periods are 
sandwiched in between items of news, so that the 

43 



Romance of Modern Invention 

subscriber is bound to hear the advertisements unless 
he is willing to risk missing some of the news if he 
hangs up his receiver until the '^puff " is finished. 

Thanks to the Telefon Hinnondo the preacher, actor, 
or singer is obliged to calculate his popularity less by 
the condition of the seats in front of him than by the 
number of telephones in use while he is performing 
his part. On the other hand, the subscriber is spared 
a vast amount of walking, waiting, cab-hire, and 
expense generally. In fact, if the principle is much 
further developed, we shall begin to doubt whether a 
Buda-Pesthian will be able to discover reasons for 
getting out of bed at all if the receiver hanging within 
reach of his hand is the entrance to so many places of 
delight. Will he become a very lazy person ; and 
what will be the effect on his entertainers when they 
find themselves facing benches that are used less 
every day ? Will the sight of a row of telephone 
trumpets rouse the future Liddon, Patti, Irving, or 
Gladstone to excel themselves ? It seems rather 
doubtful. Telephones cannot look interested or 
applaud. 

What is inside the simple-looking receiver that 
hangs on the wall beside a small mahogany case, or 
rests horizontally on a couple of crooks over the case ? 
In the older type of instrument the transmitter and 
receiver are separate, the former fixed in front of the 
case, the latter, of course, movable so that it can be 
applied to the ear. But improved patterns have 
transmitter and receiver in a single movable handle, 

44 



The Telephone 



so shaped that the earpiece is by the ear while the 
mouthpiece curves round opposite the mouth. By 
pressing a small lever v^ith the fingers the one or the 
other is brought into action when required. 

The construction of the instrument, of which we are 
at first a little afraid, and with which we later on learn 
to become rather angry, is in its general lines simple 
enough. The first practical telephone, constructed 
in 1876 by Graham Bell, a Scotchman, consisted of a 
long wooden or ebonite handle down the centre of 
which ran a permanent bar-magnet, having at one 
end a small coil of fine insulated wire wound about it. 
The ends of the wire coil are led through the handles 
to two terminals for connection with the line wires. 
At a very short distance from the wire-wound pole 
of the magnet is firmly fixed by its edges a thin 
circular iron plate, covered by a funnel-shaped 
mouthpiece. 

The iron plate is, when at rest, concave, its centre 
being attracted towards the pole of the magnet. 
When any one speaks into the mouthpiece the 
sound waves agitate the diaphragm (or plate), caus- 
ing its centre to move inwards and outwards. The 
movements of the diaphragm affect the magnetism 
of the magnet, sometimes strengthening it, sometimes 
weakening it, and consequently exciting electric cur- 
rents of varying strength in the wire coil. These 
currents passing through the line wires to a similar 
telephone excite the coil in it, and in turn affect 
the magnetism of the distant magnet, which attracts 

45 



Romance of Modern Invention 

or releases the diaphragm near its pole, causing 
undulations of the air exactly resembling those set 
up by the speaker's words. To render the telephone 
powerful enough to make conversation possible over 
long distances it was found advisable to substitute 
for the one telephone a special transmitter, and to 
insert in the circuit a battery giving a much stronger 
current than could possibly be excited by the magnet 
in the telephone at the speaker's end. 

Edison in 1877 invented a special transmitter made 
of carbon. He discovered that the harder two faces 
of carbon are pressed together the more readily will 
they allow current to pass ; the reason probably 
being that the points of contact increase in number 
and afford more bridges for the current. 

Accordingly his transmitter contains a small disc 
of lampblack (a form of carbon) connected to the 
diaphragm, and another carbon or platinum disc 
against which the first is driven with varying force 
by the vibrations of the voice. 

The Edison transmitter is therefore in idea only 
a modification of the microphone. It acts as a 
regulator of current, in distinction to the Bell tele- 
phone, which is only an exciter of current. Modern 
forms of telephones unite the Edison transmitter 
with the Bell receiver. 

The latter is extremely sensitive to electric currents, 
detecting them even when of the minutest power. 
We have seen that Marconi used a telephone in his 
famous transatlantic experiments to distinguish the 

46 



The Telephone 



signals sent from Cornwall. A telephone may be 
used with an ^' earth return" instead of a second 
wire ; but as this exposes it to stray currents by 
induction from other wires carried on the same 
poles or from the earth itself, it is now usual to use 
two wires, completing the metallic circuit. Even so 
a subscriber is liable to overhear conversations on 
wires neighbouring his own ; the writer has lively 
recollections of first receiving news of the relief of 
Ladysmith in this manner. 

Owing to the self-induction of wires in submarine 
cables and the consequent difficulty of forcing cur- 
rents through them, the telephone is at present not 
used in connection with submarine lines of more 
than a very moderate length. England has, however, 
been connected with France by a telephone cable 
from St. Margaret's Bay to Sangatte, 23 miles ; and 
Scotland with Ireland, Stranraer to Donaghadee, 
26 miles. The former cable enables speech between 
London and Marseilles, a distance of 900 miles ; and 
the latter makes it possible to speak from London 
to Dublin via Glasgow. The longest direct line in 
existence is that between New York and Chicago, 
the complete circuit of which uses 1900 miles of 
stout copper wire, raised above the ground on poles 
35 feet high. 

The efficiency of the telephone on a well laid 
system is so great that it makes very little difference 
whether the persons talking with one another are 
50 or 500 miles apart. There is no reason why a 

47 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Cape - to - Cairo telephone should not put the two 
extremities of Africa in clear vocal communication. 
We may even live to see the day when a London 
business man will be able to talk with his agent in 
Sydney, Melbourne, or Wellington. 

A step towards this last achievement has been 
taken by M. Germain, a French electrician, who 
has patented a telephone which can be used with 
stronger currents than are possible in ordinary tele- 
phones ; thereby, of course, increasing the range of 
speech on submarine cables. 

The telephone that we generally use has a trans- 
mitter which permits but a small portion of the battery 
power to pass into the wires, owing to the resistance 
of the carbon diaphragm. The weakness of the 
current is to a great extent compensated by the 
exceedingly delicate nature of the receiver. 

M. Germain has reversed the conditions with a 
transmitter that allows a very high percentage of the 
current to flow into the wires, and a comparatively 
insensitive receiver. The result is a "loud-speaking 
telephone" — not a novelty, for Edison invented one 
as long ago as 1877 — which is capable of reproducing 
speech in a wonderfully powerful fashion. 

M. Germain, with the help of special tubular 
receivers, has actually sent messages through a line 
having the same resistance as that of the London- 
Paris line, so audibly that the words could be heard 
fifteen yards from the receiver in the open air ! 



48 



The Telephone 



Wireless Telephony. 

In days when wireless telegraphy is occupying 
such a great deal of the world's attention, it is not 
likely to cause much astonishment in the reader to 
learn that wireless transmission of speech over con- 
siderable distances is an accomplished fact. We 
have already mentioned (see ^^ Wireless Telegraphy ") 
that by means of parallel systems of wires Sir William 
Preece bridged a large air-gap, and induced in the 
one sounds imparted to the other. 

Since then two other methods have been intro- 
duced ; and as a preface to the mention of the first 
we may say a few words about Graham Bell's 
Photophone. 

In this instrument light is made to do the work 
of a metal connection between speaker and listener. 
Professor Bell, in arranging the Photophone, used a 
mouthpiece as in his electric telephone, but instead 
of a diaphragm working in front of a magnet to set 
up electric impulses along a wire he employed a 
mirror of very thin glass, silvered on one side. The 
effect of sound on this mirror was to cause rapid 
alterations of its shape from concave to convex, and 
consequent variations of its reflecting power. A 
strong beam of light was concentrated on the centre 
of the mirror through a lens, and reflected by the 
mirror at an angle through another lens in the 
direction of the receiving instrument. The receiver 
consisted of a parabolic reflector to catch the rays 

49 E> 



Romance of Modern Invention 

and focus them on a selenium cell connected by an 
electric circuit with an ordinary telephone earpiece. 

On delivering a message into the mouthpiece the 
speaker would, by agitating the mirror, send a suc- 
cession of light waves of varying intensity towards 
the distant selenium cell. Selenium has the peculiar 
property of offering less resistance to electrical cur- 
rents when light is thrown upon it than when it is 
in darkness : and the more intense is the light the 
less is the obstruction it affords. The light-waves 
from the mirror, therefore, constantly alter its capacity 
as a conductor, allowing currents to pass through the 
telephone with varying power. 

In this way Professor Bell bridged 800 yards of 
space ; over which he sent, besides articulate words, 
musical notes, using for the latter purpose a revolving 
perforated disc to interrupt a constant beam of light 
a certain number of times per second. As the speed 
of the disc increased the rate of the light-flashes 
increased also, and produced in the selenium cell 
the same number of passages to the electric current, 
converted into a musical note by the receiver. So 
that by means of mechanical apparatus a ^'playful 
sunbeam " could literally be compelled to play a tune. 

From the Photophone we pass to another method 
of sound transmission by light, with which is con- 
nected the name of Mr. Hammond V. Hayes of 
Boston, Massachusetts. It is embodied in the Radio- 
phone, or the Ray-speaker, for it makes strong rays 
of light carry the human voice. 

50 



The Telephone 



Luminous bodies give off heat. As the Hght in- 
creases, so as a general rule does the heat also. At 
present we are unable to create strong light without 
having recourse to heat to help us, since we do not 
know how to cause other vibrations of sufficient 
rapidity to yield the sensation of light. But we can 
produce heat directly, and heat will set atoms in 
motion, and the ether too, giving us light, but taking 
as reward a great deal of the energy exerted. Now, 
the electric arc of a searchlight produces a large 
amount of light and heat. The light is felt by the 
eye at a distance of many miles, but the body is 
not sensitive enough to be aware of the heat emanat- 
ing from the same source. Mr. Hayes has, however, 
found the heat accompanying a searchlight beam 
quite sufficient to affect a mechanical " nerve " in a 
far-away telephone receiver. 

The transmitting apparatus is a searchlight, through 
the back of which run four pairs of wires connected 
with a telephone mouthpiece after passing through 
a switch and resistance-box or regulator. The receiver 
is a concave mirror, in the focus of which is a taper- 
ing glass bulb, half filled with carbonised filament very 
sensitive to heat. The tapering end of the bulb projects 
through the back of the mirror into an ear tube. 

If a message is to be transmitted the would-be 
speaker turns his searchHght in the direction of the 
person with whom he wishes to converse, and makes 
the proper signals. On seeing them the other pre- 
sents his mirror to the beam and listens. 

51 



Romance of Modern Invention 

The speaker's voice takes control of the searchlight 
beam. The louder the sound the more brilliantly 
glows the electric arc ; the stronger becomes the beam, 
the greater is the amount of heat passed on to the 
mirror and gathered on the sensitive bulb. The fila- 
ment inside expands. The tapering point communi- 
cates the fact to the earpiece. 

This operation being repeated many times a 
second the earpiece fills with sound, in which all 
the modulations of the far-distant voice are easily 
distinguishable. 

Two sets of the apparatus above described are 
necessary for a conversation, the functions of the 
searchlight and the bulb not being reversible. But 
inasmuch as all large steamers carry searchlights the 
necessary installation may be completed at a small 
expense. Mr. Hayes' invention promises to be a rival 
to wireless telegraphy over comparatively short dis- 
tances. It can be relied upon in all weathers, and 
is a fast method of communication. Like the photo- 
phone it illustrates the inter-relationship of the pheno- 
mena of Sound, Light, and Heat, and the readiness 
with which they may be combined to attain an end. 

Next we turn from air to earth, and to the con- 
sideration of the work of Mr. A. F. Collins of Phila- 
delphia. This electrician merely makes use of the 
currents flowing in all directions through the earth, 
and those excited by an electric battery connected 
with earth. The outfit requisite for sending wireless 
spoken messages consists of a couple of convenient 

52 



The Telephone 



stands, as many storage batteries, sets of coils, and 
receiving and transmitting instruments. 

The action of the transmitter is to send from 
the battery a series of currents through the coils, 
which transmit them, greatly intensified, to the earth 
by means of a wire connected with a buried wire- 
screen. The electric disturbances set up in the earth 
travel in all directions, and strike a similar screen 
buried beneath the receiving instrument, where the 
currents affect the delicate diaphragm of the tele- 
phone earpiece. 

The system is, in fact, upon all fours with Mr. Mar- 
coni's, the distinguishing feature being that the ether 
of the atmosphere is used in the latter case, that of 
the earth in the former. The intensity coils are 
common to both ; the buried screens are the counter- 
part of the aerial kites or balloons ; the telephone 
transmitter corresponds to the telegraphic transmit- 
ting key ; the earpiece to the coherer and relay. No 
doubt in time Mr. Collins will " tune " his instruments, 
so obtaining below ground the same sympathetic 
electric vibrations which Mr. Marconi, Professor 
Lodge, or others have employed to clothe their aerial 
messages in secrecy. 



53 



THE PHONOGRAPH. 

Even if Thomas Edison had not done wonders with 
electric Hghting, telephones, electric torpedoes, new 
processes for separating iron from its ore, telegraphy, 
animated photography, and other things too nume- 
rous to mention, he would still have made for himself 
an enduring name as the inventor of the Phonograph. 
He has fitly been called the ** Wizard of the West " 
from his genius for conjuring up out of what would 
appear to the multitude most unpromising materials 
startling scientific marvels, among which none is more 
truly wizard-like than the instrument that is as recep- 
tive of sound as the human ear, and of illimitable 
reproducing power. By virtue of its elfishly human 
characteristic, articulate speech, it occupies, and always 
will occupy, a very high position as a mechanical 
wonder. When listening to a telephone we are aware 
of the fact that the sounds are immediate reproduc- 
tions of a living person's voice, speaking at the 
moment and at a definite distance from us ; but the 
phonographic utterances are those of a voice perhaps 
stilled for ever, and the difference adds romance to 
the speaking machine. 

The Phonograph was born in 1876. As we may 
imagine, its appearance created a stir. A contributor 

54 



The Phonograph 



to the Times wrote in 1877 : '^ Not many weeks have 
passed since we were startled by the announce- 
ment that we could converse audibly with each other, 
although hundreds of miles apart, by means of so 
many miles of wire with a little electric magnet at 
each end. 

'^ Another wonder is now promised us — an invention 
purely mechanical in its nature, by means of which 
words spoken by the human voice can be, so to speak, 
stored up and reproduced at will over and over again 
hundreds, it may be thousands, of times. What will 
be thought of a piece of mechanism by means of 
which a message of any length can be spoken on to a 
plate of metal — that plate sent by post to any part of 
the world and the message absolutely respoken in the 
very voice of the sender, purely by mechanical agency ? 
What, too, shall be said of a mere machine, by means 
of which the old familiar voice of one who is no longer 
with us on earth can be heard speaking to us in the 
very tones and measure to which our ears were once 
accustomed ? " 

The first Edison machine was the climax of research 
in the realm of sound. As long ago as 1856 a Mr. 
Leo Scott made an instrument which received the 
formidable name of Phonautograph, on account of its 
capacity to register mechanically the vibrations set up 
in the atmosphere by the human voice or by musical 
instruments. A large metal cone like the mouth of an 
ear-trumpet had stretched across its smaller end a 
membrane, to which was attached a very delicate 

55 



Romance of Modern Invention 

tracing-point working on the surface of a revolving 
cylinder covered with blackened paper. Any sound 
entering the trumpet agitated the membrane, which 
in turn moved the stylus and produced a line on the 
cylinder corresponding to the vibration. Scott's ap- 
paratus could only record. It was, so to speak, the 
first half of the phonograph. Edison, twenty years 
later, added the active half. His machine, as briefly 
described in the Times, was simple ; so very simple 
that many scientists must have wondered how they 
failed to invent it themselves. 

A metal cylinder grooved with a continuous square- 
section thread of many turns to the inch was mounted 
horizontally on a long axle cut at one end with a 
screw-thread of the same '^ pitch" as that on the 
cylinder. The axle, working in upright supports, and 
furnished with a heavy fly-wheel to render the rate of 
revolution fairly uniform, was turned by a handle. 
Over the grooved cylinder was stretched a thin sheet 
of tinfoil, and on this rested lightly a steel tracing- 
point, mxOunted at the end of a spring and separated 
from a vibrating diaphragm by a small pad of rubber 
tubing. A large mouthpiece to concentrate sound on 
to the diaphragm completed the apparatus. 

To make a record with this machine the cylinder 
was moved along until the tracing-point touched one 
extremity of the foil. The person speaking into the 
mouthpiece turned the handle to bring a fresh sur- 
face of foil continuously under the point, which, owing 
to the thread on the axle and the groove on the 

56 



^^'^ f5 




The Phonograph 



cylinder being of the same pitch, was always over the 
groove, and burnished the foil down into it to a 
greater or less depth according to the strength of the 
impulses received from the diaphragm. 

The record being finished, the point was lifted off 
the foil, the cylinder turned back to its original 
position, and the point allowed to run again over the 
depressions it had made in the metal sheet. The latter 
now became the active part, imparting to the air by 
means of the diaphragm vibrations similar in duration 
and quality to those that affected it when the record 
was being made. 

It is interesting to notice that the phonograph prin- 
ciple was originally employed by Edison as a tele- 
phone ''relay." His attention had been drawn to the 
telephone recently produced by Graham Bell, and to 
the evil effects of current leakage in long lines. He 
saw that the amount of current wasted increased out 
of proportion to the length of the lines — even more 
than in the proportion of the squares of their lengths 
— and he hoped that a great saving of current would 
be effected if a long line were divided into sections 
and the sound vibrations were passed from one to the 
other by mechanical means. He used as the connect- 
hig link between two sections a strip of moistened 
paper, which a needle, attached to a receiver, indented 
with minute depressions, that handed on the message 
to another telephone. The phonograph proper, as a 
recording machine, was an after-thought. 

Edison's first apparatus, besides being heavy and 

57 



Romance of Modern Invention 

clumsy, had in practice faults which made it fall short 
of the description given in the Times. Its tone was 
harsh. The records, so far from enduring a thousand 
repetitions, were worn out by a dozen. To these de- 
fects must be added a considerable difficulty in adjust- 
ing a record made on one machine to the cylinder of 
another machine. 

Edison, being busy with his telephone and electric 
lamp work, put aside the phonograph for a time. 
Graham Bell, his brother, Chichester Bell, and 
Charles Sumner Tainter, developed and improved 
his crude ideas. They introduced the Graphophone, 
using easily removable cyhnder records. For the 
tinfoil was substituted a thin coating of a special 
wax preparation on light paper cylinders. Clock- 
work-driven motors replaced the hand motion, and 
the new machines were altogether more handy and 
effective. As soon as he had time Edison again 
entered the field. He conceived the solid wax 
cylinder, and patented a small shaving apparatus by 
means of which a record could be pared away and 
a fresh surface be presented for a new record. 

The phonograph or graphophone of to-day is a 
familiar enough sight ; but inasmuch as our readers 
may be less intimately acquainted with its construction 
and action than with its effects, a few words will now 
be added about its most striking features. 

In the first place, the record remains stationary 
while the trumpet, diaphragm and stylus pass over it. 
The reverse was the case with the tinfoil instrument. 

58 



The Phonograph 



The record is cut by means of a tiny sapphire 
point having a circular concave end very sharp at 
the edges, to gouge minute depressions into the wax. 
The point is agitated by a deHcate combination of 
weights and levers connecting it with a diaphragm of 
French glass ^hr i^^h thick. The reproducing point 
is a sapphire ball of a diameter equal to that of the 
gouge. It passes over the depressions, falling into 
them in turn and communicating its movements to 
a diaphragm, and so tenderly does it treat the records 
that a hundred repetitions do not inflict noticeable 
damage. 

It is a curious instance of the manner in which 
man unconsciously copies nature that the parts of 
the reproducing attachment of a phonograph con- 
tains parts corresponding in function exactly to those 
bones of the ear known as the Hammer, Anvil, and 
Stirrup. 

To understand the inner working of the phono- 
graph the reader must be acquainted with the theory of 
sound. All sound is the result of impulses transmitted 
by a moving body usually reaching the ear through 
the medium of the air. The quantity of the sound, 
or loudness, depends on the violence of the impulse ; 
the tone, or note, on the number of impulses in a 
given time (usually fixed as one second) ; and the 
quality, or timbrCy as musicians say, on the existence 
of minor vibrations within the main ones. 

If we were to examine the surface of a phono- 
graph record (or phonogram) under a powerful 

59 



Romance of Modern Invention 

magnifying glass we should see a series of scoops 
cut by the gouge in the wax, some longer and 
deeper than others, long and short, deep and 
shallow, alternating and recurring in regular groups. 
The depth, length, and grouping of the cuts decides 
the nature of the resultant note when the reproducing 
sapphire point passes over the record — at a rate of 
about ten inches a second. 

The study of a tracing made on properly pre- 
pared paper by a point agitated by a diaphragm 
would enable us to understand easily the cause of 
that mysterious variation in timbre which betrays 
at once what kind of instrument has emitted a note 
of known pitch. For instance, let us take middle C, 
which is the result of a certain number of atmos- 
pheric blows per second on the drum of the ear. 
The same note may come from a piano, a violin, 
a banjo, a man's larynx, an organ, or a cornet ; 
but we at once detect its source. It is scarcely 
imaginable that a piano and a cornet should be 
mistaken for one another. Now, if the tracing 
instrument had been at work while the notes 
were made successively it would have recorded a 
wavy line, each wave of exactly the same length 
as its fellows, but varying in its outline according 
to the character of the note's origin. We should 
notice that the waves were themselves wavy in 
section, being jagged like the teeth of a saw, and 
that the small secondary waves differed in size. 

The minor waves are the harmonics of the main 

60 



The Phonograph 



note. Some musical instruments are richer in these 
harmonics than others. The fact that these dehcate 
variations are recorded as minute indentations in 
the wax and reproduced is a striking proof of the 
phonograph's mechanical perfection. 

Furthermore, the phonograph registers not only 
these composite notes, but also chords or simul- 
taneous combinations of notes, each of which may 
proceed from a different instrument. In its action 
it here resembles a man who by constant practice 
is able to add up the pounds, shillings, and pence 
columns in his ledger at the same time, one wave 
system overlapping and blending with another. 

The phonograph is not equally sympathetic with 
all classes of sounds. Banjo duets make good records, 
but the guitar gives a poor result. Similarly, the 
cornet is peculiarly effective, but the bass drum dis- 
appointing. The deep chest notes of a man come 
from the trumpet with startling truth, but the top 
notes on which the soprano prides herself are often 
sadly ''tinny." The phonograph, therefore, even in 
its most perfect form is not the equal of the ex- 
quisitely sensitive human ear ; and this may partially 
be accounted for by the fact that the diaphragm in both 
recorder and reproducer has its own fundamental note 
which is not in harmony with all other notes, whereas 
the ear, like the eye, adapts itself to any vibration. 

Yet the phonograph has an almost limitless reper- 
toire. It can justly be claimed for it that it is many 
musical instruments rolled into one. It will repro- 

6l 



Romance of Modern Invention 

duce clearly and faithfully an orchestra, an instru- 
mental soloist, the words of a singer, a stump orator, 
or a stage favourite. Consequently we find it every- 
where — at entertainments, in the drawing-room, and 
even tempting us at the railway station or other places 
of public resort to part with our superfluous pence. 
At the London Hippodrome it discourses to audiences 
of several thousand persons, and in the nursery it 
delights the possessors of ingeniously - constructed 
dolls which, on a button being pressed and concealed 
machinery being brought into action, repeat some 
well-known childish melody. 

It must not be supposed that the phonograph is 
nothing more than a superior kind of scientific toy. 
More serious duties than those of mere entertainment 
have been found for it. 

At the last Presidential Election in the States the 
phonograph was often called upon to harangue large 
meetings in the interests of the rival candidates, who 
were perhaps at the time wearing out their voices 
hundreds of miles away with the same words. 

Since the pronunciation of a foreign language is 
acquired by constant imitation of sounds, the phono- 
graph, instructed by an expert, has been used to 
repeat words and phrases to a class of students until 
the difficulties they contain have been thoroughly 
mastered. The sight of such a class hanging on the 
lips — or more properly the trumpet — of a phonograph 
gifted with the true Parisian accent may be common 
enough in the future. 

62 



The Phonograph 



As a mechanical secretary and substitute for the 
shorthand writer the phonograph has certainly passed 
the experimental stage. Its daily use by some of the 
largest business establishments in the world testify 
to its value in commercial life. Many firms, especially 
American, have invested heavily in establishing phono- 
graph establishments to save labour and final expense. 
The manager, on arriving at his office in the morning, 
reads his letters, and as the contents of each is mas- 
tered, dictates an answer to a phonograph cylinder 
which is presently removed to the typewriting room, 
where an assistant, placing it upon her phonograph 
and fixing the tubes to her ears, types what is required. 
It is interesting to learn that at Ottawa, the seat of the 
Canadian Government, phonographs are used for re- 
porting the parliamentary proceedings and debates. 

There is therefore a prospect that, though the talk- 
ing-machine may lose its novelty as an entertainer, 
its practical usefulness will be largely increased. And 
while considering the future of the instrument, the 
thought suggests itself whether we shall be taking full 
advantage of Mr. Edison's notable invention if we 
neglect to make records of all kinds of intelligible 
sounds which have more than a passing interest. If 
the records were made in an imperishable substance 
they might remain effective for centuries, due care 
being taken of them in special depositories owned by 
the nation. To understand what their value would 
be to future generations we have only to imagine 
ourselves listening to the long-stilled thunder of Earl 

63 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Chatham, to the golden eloquence of Burke, or the 
passionate declamations of Mrs. Siddons. And in the 
narrower circle of family interests how valuable a 
part of family heirlooms would be the phonograms 
containing a vocal message to posterity from Grand- 
father this, or Great-aunt that, whose portraits in the 
drawing-room album do little more than call attention 
to the changes in dress since the time when their 
subjects faced the camera ! 

Record-Making and Manufacture. — Phonographic 
records are of two shapes, the cylindrical and the 
flat, the latter cut w^ith a volute groove continuously 
diminishing in diameter from the circumference to 
the centre. Flat records are used in the Gramophone 
— a reproducing machine only. Their manufacture 
is effected by first of all making a record on a sheet 
of zinc coated with a very thin film of wax, from 
which the sharp steel point moved by the recording 
diaphragm removes small portions, baring the zinc 
underneath. The plate is then flooded with an acid 
solution, which eats into the bared patches, but does 
not affect the parts still covered with wax. The etch- 
ing complete, the wax is removed entirely, and a cast 
or electrotype negative record made from the zinc 
plate. The indentations of the original are in this 
represented by excrescences of like size ; and when 
the negative block is pressed hard down on to a 
properly prepared disc of vulcanite or celluloid, the 
latter is indented in a manner that reproduces exactly 
the tones received on the '^master" record. 

64 



The Phonograph 



Cylindrical records are made in two ways, by 
moulding or by copying. The second process is ex- 
tremely simple. The '^master" cylinder is placed 
on a machine which also rotates a blank cylinder 
at a short distance from and parallel to the first. Over 
the '' master " record passes a reproducing point, 
which is connected by delicate levers to a cutting 
point resting on the '^ blank," so that every movement 
of the one produces a corresponding movement of the 
other. 

This method, though accurate in its results, is com- 
paratively slow. The inoulding process is therefore 
becoming the more general of the two. Edison has 
recently introduced a most beautiful process for ob- 
taining negative moulds from wax positives. Owing 
to its shape, a zinc cylinder could not be treated like 
a flat disc, as, the negative made, it could not be 
detached without cutting. Edison, therefore, with 
characteristic perseverance, sought a way of electro- 
typing the wax, which, being a non-conductor of 
electricity, would not receive a deposit of metal. The 
problem was how to deposit on it. 

Any one who has seen a Crookes' tube such as 
is used for X-ray work may have noticed on the glass 
a black deposit which arises from the flinging off from 
the negative pole of minute particles of platinum. 
Edison took advantage of this repellent action ; and 
by enclosing his wax records in a vacuum between 
two gold poles was able to coat them with an in- 
finitesimally thin skin of pure gold, on which silver 

65 E 



Romance of Modern Invention 

or nickel could be easily deposited. The deposit 
being sufficiently thick the wax was melted out and 
the surface of the electrotype carefully cleaned. To 
make castings it was necessary only to pour in wax, 
which on cooling would shrink sufficiently to be 
withdrawn. The delicacy of the process may be 
deduced from the fact that some of the sibilants, 
or hissing sounds of the voice, are computed to be 
represented by depressions less than a millionth of 
an inch in depth, and yet they are most distinctly 
reproduced ! Cylinder records are made in two 
sizes, 2j and 5 inches in diameter respectively. The 
larger size gives the most satisfactory renderings, as 
the indentations are on a larger scale and therefore 
less worn by the reproducing point. One hundred 
turns to the inch is the standard pitch of the thread ; 
but in some records the number is doubled. 

Phonographs, Graphophones, and Gramophones are 
manufactured almost entirely in America, where large 
factories, equipped with most perfect plant and tools, 
work day and night to cope with the orders that flow 
in freely from all sides. One factory alone turns out 
a thousand machines a day, ranging in value from 
a few shillings to forty pounds each. Records are 
made in England on a large scale ; and now that 
the Edison-Bell firm has introduced the unbreakable 
celluloid form their price will decrease. By means 
of the Edison electrotyping process a customer can 
change his record without changing his cylinder. He 
takes the cylinder to the factory, where it is heated, 

66 



The Photographophone 

placed in the mould, and subjected to great pressure 
which drives the soft celluloid into the mould de- 
pressions ; and behold ! in a few moments ^' Auld 
Lang Syne" has become ^' Home, Sweet Home/' or 
whatever air is desired. Thus altering records is very 
little more difficult than getting a fresh book at the 
circulating library. 



The Photographophone. 

This instrument is a phonograph working entirely 
by means of light and electricity. 

The flame of an electric lamp is brought under the 
influence of sound vibrations which cause its brilliancy 
to vary at every alteration of pitch or quality. 

The light of the flame is concentrated through a 
lens on to a travelling photographic sensitive film, 
which, on development in the ordinary way, is found 
to be covered with dark and bright stripes propor- 
tionate in tone to the strength of the light at different 
moments. The film is then passed between a lamp 
and a selenium plate connected with an electric cir- 
cuit and a telephone. The resistance of the selenium 
to the current varies according to the power of the 
light thrown upon it. When a dark portion of the 
film intercepts the light of the lamp the selenium 
plate offers high resistance ; when the light finds its 
way through a clear part of the film the resistance 
weakens. Thus the telephone is submitted to a series 
of changes affecting the ^^ receiver." As in the making 

67 



Romance of Modern Invention 

of the record speech-vibrations affect light, and the 
light affects a sensitive film ; so in its reproduction 
the film affects a sensitive selenium plate, giving 
back to a telephone exactly what it received from the 
sound vibrations. 

One great advantage of Mr. Ruhmer's method is 
that from a single film any number of records can 
be printed by photography ; another, that, as with 
the Telegraphone (see below), the same film passed 
before a series of lamps successively is able to operate 
a corresponding number of telephones. 

The inventor is not content with his success. He 
hopes to record not merely sounds but even pictures 
by means of light and a selenium plate. 

The Telephonograph. 

Having dealt with the phonograph and the tele- 
phone separately, we may briefly consider one or two 
ingenious combinations of the two instruments. The 
word Telephonograph signifies an apparatus for re- 
cording sounds sent from a distance. It takes the 
place of the human listener at the telephone receiver. 

Let us suppose that a Reading subscriber wishes to 
converse along the wires with a friend in London, but 
that on ringing up his number he discovers that the 
friend is absent from his home or office. He is left with 
the alternative of either waiting till his friend returns, 
which may cause a serious loss of time, or of dictating 
his message, a slow and laborious process. This with 

68 



The Telephonograph 

the ordinary telephonic apparatus. But if the London 
friend be the possessor of a Telephonograph, the 
person answering the call-bell can, if desired to do so, 
switch the wires into connection with it and start the 
machinery ; and in a very short time the message will 
be stored up for reproduction when the absent friend 
returns. 

The Telephonograph is the invention of Mr. J. E. O. 
Kumberg. The message is spoken into the telephone 
transmitter in the ordinary way, and the vibrations set 
up by the voice are caused to act upon a recording 
stylus by the impact of the sound waves at the further 
end of the wires. In this manner a phonogram is 
produced on the wax cylinder in the house or office 
of the person addressed, and it may be read off at 
leisure. A very sensitive transmitter is employed, and 
if desired the apparatus can be so arranged that by 
means of a double-channel tube the words spoken 
are simultaneously conveyed to the telephone and to 
an ordinary phonograph, which insures that a record 
shall be kept of any message sent. 

The Telegraphone^ produced by Mr. Valdemar Poul- 
sen, performs the same functions as the telephono- 
graph, but differs from it in being entirely electrical. 
It contains no waxen cylinder, no cutting-point ; their 
places are taken respectively by a steel wire wound on 
a cylindrical drum (each turn carefully insulated from 
its neighbours) and by a very small electro-magnet, 
which has two delicate points that pass along the wire, 
one on either side, resting lightly upon it. 

69 



Romance of Modern Invention 

As the drum rotates, the whole of the wire passes 
gradually between the two points, into which a series 
of electric shocks is sent by the action of the speaker's 
voice at the further end of the wires. The shocks 
magnetise the portion of steel wire which acts as a 
temporary bridge between the two points. At the 
close of three and a half minutes the magnet has 
worked from one end of the wire coil to the other ; it 
is then automatically lifted and carried back to the 
starting-point in readiness for reproduction of the 
sounds. This is accomplished by disconnecting the 
telegraphone from the telephone wires and switching 
it on to an ordinary telephonic earpiece or receiver. 
As soon as the cylinder commences to revolve a 
second time, the magnet is influenced by the series of 
magnetic '^ fields " in the wires, and as often as it 
touches a magnetised spot imparts [an impulse to the 
diaphragm of the receiver, which vibrates at the rate 
and with the same force as the vibrations originally 
set up in the distant transmitter. The result is a 
clear and accurate reproduction of the message, 
even though hours and even days may have elapsed 
since its arrival. 

As the magnetic effects on the wire coil retain their 
power for a considerable period, the message may 
be reproduced many times. As soon as the wire- 
covered drum is required for fresh impressions, the 
old one is wiped out by passing a permanent magnet 
along the wire to neutralise the magnetism of the last 
message. 

70 



The Telephonograph 

Mr. Poulsen has made an instrument of a different 
type to be employed for the reception of an unusually 
lengthy communication. Instead of a wire coil on a 
cylinder, a ribbon of very thin flat steel spring is 
wound from one reel on to another across the poles 
of two electro-magnets, w^hich touch the lower side 
only of the strip. The first magnet is traversed by a 
continuous current to efface the previous record ; the 
second magnetises the strip in obedience to impulses 
from the telephone wires. The message complete, the 
strip is run back, and the magnets connected with 
receivers, which give out loud and intelligent speech 
as the strip again traverses them. The Poulsen 
machine makes the transmission of the same message 
simultaneously through several telephones an easy 
matter, as the strip can be passed over a series of 
electro-magnets each connected with a telephone. 



71 



THE TELAUTOGRAPH. 

It is a curious experience to watch for the tirst time 
the movements of a tin}^ Telautograph pen as it works 
behind a glass window in a japanned case. The pen, 
though connected only with two delicate wires, ap- 
pears instinct with human reason. It writes in a 
flowing hand, just as a man writes. At the end of a 
word it crosses the t's and dots the i's. At the end 
of a line it dips itself in an inkpot. It punctuates its 
sentences correctly. It illustrates its words with 
sketches. It uses shorthand as readily as longhand. 
It can form letters of all shapes and sizes. 

And yet there is no visible reason wh}^ it should do 
what it does. The japanned case hides the guiding 
agency, whatever it may be. Our ears cannot detect 
any mechanical motion. The writing seems at first 
sight as mysterious as that which appeared on the 
wall to warn King Belshazzar. 

In reality it is the outcome of a vast amount of 
patience and mechanical ingenuity culminating in a 
wonderful instrument called the Telautograph. The 
Telautograph is so named because by its aid we can 
send our autographs, i.e. our own particular hand- 
wTiting, electrically over an indefinite length of wire, 
as easily as a telegraph clerk transmits messages in 

72 




j!v h'ind />. 



I /■//,' Irlitiiliivrupli 



The rchn,ln:n,H,. Ilir nlirr Hliun r. Ihr Rnnvn^ .III. Umur (wilh covcr 
iriini/K'il) r. Ilic 'I inir.inillci 



The Telautograph 

the Morse alphabet. Whatever the human hand 
does on one telautograph at one end of the wires, 
that will be reproduced by a similar machine at the 
other end; though the latter be hundreds of miles 
away. 

The instrument stands about eighteen inches high, 
and its base is as many inches square. It falls into two 
parts, the receiver and the transmitter. The receiver 
is vertical and forms the upright and back portion of 
the telautograph. At one side of it hangs an ordinary 
telephone attachment. The transmitter, a sloping 
desk placed conveniently for the hand, is the front 
and horizontal portion. The receiver of one station 
is connected with the transmitter of another station ; 
there being ordinarily no direct communication be- 
tween the two parts of the same instrument. 

An attempt will be made to explain, with the help 
of a simple diagram, the manner in which the telauto- 
graph performs its duties. 

These duties are threefold. In the first place, it 
must reproduce whatever is written on the transmitter. 
Secondly, it must reproduce only what is written^ not 
all the movements of the hand. Thirdly, it must 
supply the recording pen with fresh paper to write 
on, and with fresh ink to write with. 

In our diagram we must imagine that all the cover- 
ings of the telautograph have been cleared away to 
lay bare the most essential parts of the mechanism. 
For the sake of simplicity not all the coils, wires, and 
magnets having functions of their own are repre- 

73 



Romance of Modern Invention 

sented, and the drawing is not to scale. But what 
is shown will enable the reader to grasp the general 
principles which work the machine. 

Turning first of all to the transmitter, we have P, 
a little platform hinged at the back end, and moving 
up and down very slightly in front, according as 
pressure is put on to or taken off it by the pencil. 
Across it a roll of paper is shifted by means of the 
lever S, which has other uses as well. To the right 
of P is an electric bell-push, E, and on the left K, 
another small button. 

The pencil is at the junction of two small bars CC, 
which are hinged at their other end to the levers AA'. 
Any motion of the pencil is transmitted by CC to 
AA', and by them to the arms LL', the extremities 
of which, two very small brushes ZZ' ^ sweep along 
the quadrants RR'. This is the first point to observe, 
that the position of the pencil decides on which sec- 
tions of the quadrants these little brushes rest, and 
consequently how much current is to be sent to the 
distant station. The quadrants are known technically 
as rheostats, or current-controllers. Each quadrant 
is divided into 496 parts, separated from each other 
by insulating materials, so that current can pass from 
one to the other only by means of some connecting 
wire. In our illustration only thirteen divisions are 
given, for the sake of clearness. The dark lines 
represent the insulation. WW are the very fine 
wire loops connecting each division of the quadrant 
with its neighbours. If then a current from the 

74 



THE T ELAU TO GRAPH 








Romance of Modern Invention 

battery B enters the rheostat at division i it will 
have to pass through all these wires before it can 
reach division 13. The current always enters at i, 
but the point of departure from the rheostat de- 
pends entirely upon the position of the brushes Z 
or Z'. If Z happens to be on No. 6 the current will 
pass through five loops of wire, along the arm L, and 
so through the main wire to the receiving station ; if 
on No. 13, through twelve loops. 

Before going any further we must have clear ideas 
on the subject of electrical resistance, upon which 
the whole system of the telautograph is built up. 
Electricity resembles water in its objection tp flow 
through small passages. It is much harder to pump 
water through a half-inch pipe than through a one- 
inch pipe, and the longer the pipe is, whatever its 
bore, the more work is required. So then, two 
things affect resistance — size of pipe or wire, and 
length of pipe or wire. , 

The wires WW are very fine, and offer very high 
resistance to a current ; so high that by the time the 
current from battery B has passed through all the 
wire loops only one-fifteenth or less of the original 
force is left to traverse the long-distance wire. 

The rheostats act independently of one another. 
As the pencil moves over the transmitting paper, a 
succession of currents of varying intensity is sent off 
by each rheostat to the receiving station. 

The receiver, to which we must now pay attention, 
has two arms DD', and two rods FF', corresponding 

;6 







By kind :peT7nission ofl [The Telautograph Co. 

An example of the work done by the Telautograph. The upper 
sketch shoius a design drawn on the transmitter ; the lozver 
is the same design as reproduced by the receiving instrument, 
many miles distant. 

{To face p. 76. 



The Telautograph 

in size with AA' and CC of the transmitter. The 
arms DD' are moved up and down by the coils TT', 
which turn on centres in circular spaces at the bend 
of the magnets MM'. The position of these coils 
relatively to the magnets depend on the strength of 
the currents coming from the transmitting station. 
Each coil strains at a small spiral spring until it has 
reached the position in which its electric force is 
balanced by the retarding influence of the spring. 
One of the cleverest things in the telautograph is the 
adjustment of these coils so that they shall follow faith- 
fully the motions of the rods LV in the transmitter. 

We are now able to trace the actions of sending 
a message. The sender first presses the button E 
to call the attention of some one at the receiving 
station to the fact that a message is coming, either 
on the telephone or on the paper. It should be 
remarked, by-the-bye, that the same wires serve for 
both telephone and telautograph, the unhooking of 
the telephone throwing the telautograph out of con- 
nection for the time. 

He then presses the lever S towards the left, bring- 
ing his transmitter into connection with the distant 
receiver, and also moving a fresh length of paper on 
to the platform P. With his pencil he writes his mes- 
sage, pressing firmly on the paper, so that the plat- 
form may bear down against an electric contact, X. 
As the pencil moves about the paper the arms CC 
are, constantly changing their angles, and the brushes 
ZZ' are passing along the segments of the rheostats. 

77 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Currents flow in varying intensity away to the coils 
TT' and work the arms DD', the wires FF', and the 
pen, a tiny glass tube. 

In the perfectly regulated telautograph the arms 
AA' and the arms DD' will move in unison, and con- 
sequently the position of the pen must be the same 
from moment to moment as that of the pencil. 

Mr. Foster Ritchie, the clever inventor of this tel- 
autograph, had to provide for many things besides 
mere slavish imitation of movement. As has been 
stated above, the pen must record only those move- 
ments of the pencil which are essential. Evidently, 
if while the pencil returns to dot an / a long line 
were registered by the pen corresponding to the path 
of the pencil, confusion would soon ensue on the 
receiver ; and instead of a neatly-written message we 
should have an illegible and puzzling maze of lines. 
Mr. Ritchie has therefore taken ingenious precautions 
against any such mishap. The platen P on being 
depressed by the pencil touches a contact, X, which 
closes an electric circuit through the long-distance 
wires and excites a magnet at the receiving end. That 
attracts a little arm and breaks another circuit, allow- 
ing the bar Y to fall close to the paper. The wires 
FF' and the pen are now able to rest on the paper 
and trace characters. But as soon as the platen P 
rises, on the removal of the pencil from the trans- 
mitting paper, the contact at X is broken, the magnet 
at the receiver ceases to act, the arm it attracted 
falls back and sets up a circuit which causes the bar 

78 



The Telautograph 



to spring up again and lift the pen. So that unless 
you are actually pressing the paper with your pencil, 
the pen is not marking, though it may be moving. 

As soon as a line is finished a fresh surface of 
paper is required at both ends. The operator pushes 
the lever S sideways, and effects the change mechani- 
cally at his end. At the same time a circuit is formed 
which excites certain magnets at the receiver and 
causes the shifting forward there also of the paper, 
and also breaks the writing current, so that the pen 
returns for a moment to its normal position of rest in 
the inkpot. 

It may be asked : If the wires are passing currents 
to work the writing apparatus, how can they simul- 
taneously affect the lifting-bar, Y ? The answer is 
that currents of two different kinds are used, a 
direct current for writing, a vibratory current for 
depressing the lifting-bar. The direct current passes 
from the battery B through the rheostats RR' along 
the wires, through the coils working the arms DD' 
and into the earth at the far end ; but the vibratory 
current, changing its direction many times a second 
and so neutralising itself, passes up one wire and back 
down the other through the lifting-bar connection 
without interfering with the direct current. 

The message finished, the operator depresses with 
the point of his pencil the little push-key, K, and con- 
nects his receiver with the distant transmitter in readi- 
ness for an answer. 

The working speed of the telautograph is that of 

79 



Romance of Modern Invention 

the writer. If shorthand be employed, messages can 
be transmitted at the rate of over loo words per 
minute. As regards the range of transmission, suc- 
cessful tests have been made by the postal authorities 
between Paris and London, and also between Paris 
and Lyons. In the latter case the messages were 
sent from Paris to Lyons and back directly to Paris, 
the lines being connected at Lyons, to give a total 
distance of over 650 miles. There is no reason why 
much greater length of line should not be employed. 

The telautograph in its earlier and imperfect form 
was the work of Professor Elisha Gray, who invented 
the telephone almost simultaneously with Professor 
Graham Bell. His telautograph worked on what is 
known as the step-by-step principle, and was defective 
in that its speed was very limited. If the operator 
wrote too fast the receiving pen lagged behind the 
transmitting pencil, and confusion resulted. Accord- 
ingly this method, though ingenious, was abandoned, 
and Mr. Ritchie in his experiments looked about for 
some preferable system, which should be simpler and 
at the same time much speedier in its action. After 
four years of hard work he has brought the rheostat 
system, explained above, to a pitch of perfection 
which will be at once appreciated by any one who 
has seen the writing done by the instrument. 

The advantages of the Telautograph over the ordinary 
telegraphy may be briefly summed up as follows : — 

Anybody who can write can use it ; the need of 
skilled operators is abolished. 

80 



The Telautograph 



A record is automatically kept of every message 
sent. 

The person to whom the message is sent need not 
be present at the receiver. He will find the message 
written out on his return. 

The instrument is silent and so insures secrecy. 
An ordinary telegraph may be read by sound ; but 
not the telautograph. 

It is impossible to tap the wires unless, as is most 
unlikely, the intercepting party has an instrument in 
exact accord with the transmitter. 

It can be used on the same wires as the ordinary 
telephone, and since a telephone is combined with 
it, the subscriber has a double means of communi- 
cation. For some items of business the telephone 
may be used as preferable ; but in certain cases, the 
telautograph. A telephone message may be heard 
by other subscribers ; it is impossible to prove the 
authenticity of such a message unless witnesses have 
been present at the transmitting end ; and the message 
itself may be misunderstood by reason of bad articula- 
tion. But the telautograph preserves secrecy while 
preventing any misunderstanding. Anything written 
by it is for all practical purposes as valid as a 
letter. 

We must not forget its extreme usefulness for 
transmitting sketches. A very simple diagram often 
explains a thing better than pages of letter-press. 
The telautograph may help in the detection of 
criminals, a pictorial presentment of whom can by 

8i F 



Romance of Modern Invention 

its means be despatched all over the country in a 
very short time. And in warfare an instrument 
flashing back from the advance-guard plans of the 
country and of the enemy's positions might on occa- 
sion prove of the greatest importance. 



82 



MODERN ARTILLERY. 

The vast subject of artillery in its modern form, in- 
cluding under this head for convenience' sake not only 
heavy ordnance but machine-guns and small-arms, 
can of necessity only be dealt with most briefly in 
this chapter. 

It may therefore be well to take a general survey 
and to define beforehand any words or phrases which 
are used technically in describing the various opera- 
tions. 

The employment of firearms dates from a long- 
distant past, and it is interesting to note that many 
an improvement introduced during the last century 
is but the revival of a former invention which only 
lack of accuracy in tools and appliances had 
hitherto prevented from being brought into practical 
usage. 

So far back as 1498 the art of rifling cannon in 
straight grooves was known, and a British patent was 
taken out in 1635 by Rotsipan. The grooves were 
first made spiral or screwed by Koster of Birmingham 
about 1620. Berlin possesses a rifled cannon with 
thirteen grooves dated 1664. But the first recorded 
uses of such weapons in actual warfare was during 
Louis Napoleon's Italian campaign in 1859, and two 

83 



Romance of Modern Invention 

years later by General James of the United States 
Army. 

The system of breech-loadingy again, is as old as the 
sixteenth century, and we find a British patent of 
1741 ; while the first United States patent was given 
in 181 1 for a flint-lock weapon. 

Magazine guns of American production appeared in 
1849 and i860, but these were really an adaptation of 
the old matchlock revolvers, said to belong to the 
period 1480-1500. There is one in the Tower of 
London credited to the fifteenth century, and a 
British patent of 1718 describes a well-constructed 
revolver carried on a tripod and of the dimensions 
of a modern machine-gun. The inventor gravely 
explains that he has provided round chambers for 
round bullets to shoot Christians, and square cham- 
bers with square missiles for use against the 
Turks ! 

The word *' ordnance " is applied to heavy guns of 
all kinds, and includes guns mounted on fortresses, 
naval guns, siege artillery, and that for use in the 
field. These guns are all mounted on stands or car- 
riages, and may be divided into three classes : — 
(i.) Cannon, or heavy guns. 

(ii.) Howitzersy for field, mountain, or siege use, 
which are lighter and shorter than cannon, and 
designed to throw hollow projectiles with compara- 
tively small charges. 

(iii.) Mortars y for throwing shells at a great elevation. 

The modern long-range guns and improved howit- 

84 



Modern Artillery 



zers have, however, virtually superseded mortars. 
Machine-guns of various forms are comparatively 
small and light, transportable by hand, and filling a 
place between cannon and small-arms, the latter term 
embracing the soldier's personal armament of rifle 
and pistol or revolver, which are carried in the 
hand. 

A group of guns of the like design are generally 
given the name of their first inventor, or the place of 
manufacture ; such as the Armstrong gun, the Vickers- 
Maxim, the Martini-Henry rifle, or the Enfield. 

The indifferent use of several expressions in describ- 
ing the same weapon is, however, rather confusing. 
One particular gun may be thus referred to : — by its 
weight in tons or cwt., as " the 35-ton gun " ; by the 
weight of its projectiley as '^ a 68-pounder " ; by its 
calibre^ that is, size of bore, as ^^the 4-inch gun." Of 
these the heavier breech-loading (B.-L.) and quick- 
firing (Q.-F.) guns are generally known by the size of 
bore ; small Q.-F.'s, field-guns, &c., by the weight of 
projectile. It is therefore desirable to enter these 
particulars together when making any list of service 
ordnance for future reference. 

No ^individual gun, whether large or small, is a 
single whole, but consists of several pieces fastened 
together by many clever devices. 

The principal parts of a cannon are : — 

(i) The chase^ or main tube into which the projectile 
is loaded ; terminating at one end in the muzzle. 

(2) The breech-piece^ consisting of (a) the chamber, 

85 



Romance of Modern Invention 

which is bored out for a larger diameter than the chase 
to contain the firing-charge, {b) The breech -plugy 
which is closed before the charge is exploded and 
screwed tightly into place, sealing every aperture by 
means of a special device called the ''obturator/' in 
order to prevent any gases passing out round it instead 
of helping to force the projectile forwards towards the 
muzzle. 

The whole length of inside tube is termed the 
barrel^ as in a machine-gun, rifle, or sporting-piece, 
but in the two latter weapons the breech-opening 
is closed by sliding or springing back the breech- 
block or bolt into firing position. 

Old weapons as a rule were smooth-bored (S.-B.), 
firing a round missile between which and the barrel 
a considerable amount of the gases generated by 
the explosion escaped and caused loss of power, this 
escape of gas being known as windage. 

In all modern weapons we use conical projectiles, 
fitted near the base with a soft copper driving-band, 
the diameter of which is somewhat larger than that 
of the bore of the gun, and cut a number of spiral 
grooves in the barrel. The enormous pressure gene- 
rated by the explosion of the charge forces the 
projectile down the bore of the gun and out of the 
muzzle. The body of the projectile, made of steel 
or iron, being smaller in diameter than the bore, 
easily passes through, but the driving-band being 
of greater diameter, and being composed of soft 
copper, can only pass down the bore with the pro- 

86 



Modern Artillery 



jectile by flowing into the grooves, thus preventing 
any escape of gas, and being forced to follow their 
twist. It therefore rotates rapidly upon its own 
longitudinal axis while passing down the barrel, and 
on leaving the muzzle two kinds of velocity have 
been imparted to it ; — first, a velocity of motion 
through the air ; secondly, a velocity of rotation 
round its axis which causes it to fly steadily onward 
in the required direction, i.e, a prolongation of the 
axis of the gun. Thus extreme velocity and pene- 
trating power, as well as correctness of aim, are 
acquired. 

The path of a projectile through the air is called 
its trajectory^ and if uninterrupted its flight would 
continue on indefinitely in a perfectly straight line. 
But immediately a shot has been hurled from the 
gun by the explosion in its rear two other natural 
forces begin to act upon it : — 

Gravitation, which tends to bring it to earth. 

Air-resistance, which gradually checks its speed. 

(Theoretically, a bullet dropped perpendicularly 
from the muzzle of a perfectly horizontal rifle would 
reach the ground at the same moment as another 
bullet fired from the muzzle horizontally, the action 
of gravity being the same in both cases.) 

Its direct, even course is therefore deflected till 
it forms a curve, and sooner or later it returns to 
earth, still retaining a part of its velocity. To 
counteract the attraction of gravity the shot is thrown 
upwards by elevating the muzzle, care being taken 

87 



Romance of Modern Invention 

to direct the gun's action to the same height above 
the object as the force of gravitation would draw 
the projectile down during the time of flight. The 
gunner is enabled to give the proper incHnation to 
his piece by means of the sights ; one of these, near 
the muzzle, being generally fixed, while that next 
the breech is adjustable by sliding up an upright 
bar which is so graduated that the proper elevation 
for any required range is given. 

The greater the velocity the flatter is the trajectory, 
and the more dangerous to the enemy. Assuming 
the average height of a man to be six feet, all the 
distance intervening between the point where a 
bullet has dropped to within six feet of the earth, 
and the point where it actually strikes is dangerous 
to any one in that interval, which is called the 
*' danger zone." A higher initial velocity is gained 
by using stronger firing charges, and a more extended 
flight by making the projectile longer in proportion to 
its diameter. The reason why a shell from a cannon 
travels further than a rifle bullet, both having the 
same muzzle velocity, is easily explained. 

A rifle bullet is, let us assume, three times as long 
as it is thick ; a cannon shell the same. If the shell 
have ten times the diameter of the bullet, its ^'nose" 
will have 10x10 = 100 times the area of the bullet's 
nose; but its viass will be 10x10x10=1000 times 
that of the bullet. 

In other words, when t\vo bodies are proportional 
in all their dimensions their air-resistance varies as 

88 



Modern Artillery 



the square of their diameters, but their mass and 
consequently their momentum varies as the cube of 
their diameters. The shell therefore starts with a 
great advantage over the bullet, and may be compared 
to a '* crew " of cyclists on a multicycle all cutting the 
same path through the air ; whereas the bullet re- 
sembles a single rider, who has to overcome as 
much air-resistance as the front man of the '^ crew " 
but has not the weight of other riders behind to 
help him. 

As regards the effect of rifling, it is to keep the 
bullet from turning head over heels as it flies through 
the air, and to maintain it always point forwards. 
Every boy knows that a top *' sleeps " best when it 
is spinning fast. Its horizontal rotation overcomes 
a tendency to vertical movement towards the ground. 
In like manner a rifle bullet, spinning vertically, 
overcomes an inclination of its atoms to move out 
of their horizontal path. Professor John Perry, F.R.S., 
has illustrated this gyroscopic effect, as it is called, 
of a whirling body with a heavy flywheel in a case, 
held by a man standing on a pivoted table. How- 
ever much the man may try to turn the top from 
its original direction he will fail as long as its velo- 
city of rotation is high. He may move the top 
relatively to his body, but the table will turn so as 
to keep the centre line of the top always pointing 
in the same direction. 



89 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Rifles. 

Up to the middle of last century our soldiers were 
armed with the flint-lock musket known as ''Brown 
Bess," a smooth-bore barrel f-inch in diameter, thirty- 
nine inches long, weighing with its bayonet over 
eleven pounds. The round leaden bullet weighed an 
ounce, and had to be wrapped in a " patch " or bit 
of oily rag to make it fit the barrel and prevent 
windage ; it was then pushed home with a ramrod 
on to the powder-charge, which was ignited by a 
spark passing from the flint into a priming of powder. 
How little its accuracy of aim could be depended 
upon, however, is proved by the word of command 
when advancing upon an enemy, ''Wait till you see 
the whites of their eyes, boys, before you fire ! " 

In the year 1680 each troop of Life Guards was 
supplied with eight rifled carbines, a modest allowance, 
possibly intended to be used merely by those acting 
as scouts. After this we hear nothing of them until 
in 1800 the 95th Regiment received a 20-bore muzzle- 
loading rifle, exchanged about 1835 for the Brunswick 
rifle firing a spherical bullet, an improvement that 
more than doubled its effective range. The com- 
panies so armed became known as the Rifle Brigade. 
At last, in 1842, the old flint-lock was superseded for 
the whole army by the original percussion musket, a 
smooth-bore whose charge was exploded by a per- 
cussion cap made of copper. [That this copper had 
some commercial value was shown by the rush of 

90 



Rifles 

*' roughs" to Aldershot and elsewhere upon a field- 
day to collect the split fragments which strewed the 
ground after the troops had withdrawn.] 

Soon afterward the barrel was rifled and an elon- 
gated bullet brought into use. This missile was 
pointed in front, and had a hollowed base so con- 
trived that it expanded immediately the pressure of 
exploding gases was brought to bear on it, and thus 
filled up the grooves, preventing any windage. The 
one adopted by our army in the year 1852 was the 
production of M. Mini^, a Frenchman, though an 
expanding bullet of English invention had been 
brought forward several years before. 

Meanwhile the Prussians had their fanious needle- 
gun, a breech-loading rifled weapon fired by a needle 
attached to a sliding bolt ; as the bolt is shot forward 
the needle pierces the charge and ignites the fulmi- 
nate by friction. This rifle was used in the Prusso- 
Austrian war of 1866 some twenty years after its first 
inception, and the French promptly countered it by 
arming their troops with the Chassepot rifle, an im- 
proved edition of the same principle. A piece which 
could be charged and fired in any position from five 
to seven times as fast as the muzzle-loader, which the 
soldier had to load standing, naturally caused a revolu- 
tion in the infantry armament of other nations. 

The English Government, as usual the last to make 
a change, decided in 1864 upon using breech-loading 
rifles. Till a more perfect weapon could be obtained 
the Enfields were at a small outlay converted into 

91 



Romance of Modern Invention 

breech-loaders after the plans of Mr. Snider, and were 
henceforward known as Snider-Enfields. Eventually 
— as the result of open competition — the Martini- 
Henry rifle was produced by combining Henry's 
system of rifling with Martini's mechanism for breech- 
loading. This weapon had seven grooves with one 
turn in twenty-two inches, and weighed with bayonet 
ID lb. 4 oz. It fired with great accuracy, the trajectory 
having a rise of only eight feet at considerable dis- 
tances, so that the bullet would not pass over the 
head of a cavalry man. Twenty rounds could be 
fired in fifty-three seconds. 

Now in the latter years of the century all these 
weapons have been superseded by magazine rifles, 
i.e. rifles which can be fired several times without 
recourse to the ammunition pouch. They differ from 
the revolver in having only one firing chamber, into 
which the cartridges are one by one brought by a 
simple action of the breech mechanism, which also 
extracts the empty cartridge-case. The bore of these 
rifles is smaller and the rifling sharper ; they therefore 
shoot straighter and harder than the large bore, and 
owing to the use of new explosives the recoil is less. 

The French Lebel magazine rifle was the pioneer of 
all now used by European nations, though a some- 
what similar weapon was familiar to the Americans 
since 1849, being first used during the Civil War. The 
Henry rifle, as it was called, afterwards became the 
Winchester. 

The German army rifle is the Mauser, so familiar 

92 



Rifles 

to US in the hands of the Boers during the South 
African War — loading five cartridges at once in a 
case or ''clip" which falls out when emptied. The 
same rifle has been adopted by Turkey, and was 
used by the Spaniards in the late Spanish-American 
War. 

The Austrian Mannlicker^ adopted by several con- 
tinental nations, and the Krag-Jorgensen now used in 
the north of Europe and as the United States army 
weapon, resemble the Mauser in most particulars. 
Each of these loads the magazine in one movement 
with a clip. 

The Hotchkiss magazine rifle has its magazine in the 
stock, holding five extra cartridges pushed successively 
into loading position by a spiral spring. 

Our forces are now armed principally with the Lee- 
Enfield^ which is taking the place of the Lee-Metford 
issued a few years ago. These are small-bore rifles 
of .303 inch calibre, having a detachable box, which is 
loaded with ten cartridges (Lee-Metford eight) passed 
up in turn by a spring into the breech, whence, when 
the bolt is closed, they are pushed into the firing- 
chamber. The empty case is ejected by pulling back 
the bolt, and at the same time another cartridge is 
pressed up from the magazine and the whole process 
repeated. When the cut-off is used the rifle may 
be loaded and fired singly, be the magazine full or 
empty. 

The Lee-Enfield has five grooves (Lee-Metford ten), 
making one complete turn from right to left in every 

93 



Romance of Modern Invention 

ten inches. It weighs 9 lb. 4 oz., and the barrel is 
30.197 inches long. The range averages 3500 yards. 

We are now falling into line with other powers by 
adopting the ^* clip " form instead of the box for load- 
ing. The sealed pattern of the new service weapon is 
thus provided, and has also been made somewhat 
lighter and shorter while preserving the same velocity. 

We are promised an even more rapid firing rifle 
than any of these, one in which the recoil is used to 
work the breech and lock so that it is a veritable 
automatic gun. Indeed, several continental nations 
have made trial of such weapons and reported favour- 
ably upon them. One lately tried in Italy works by 
means of gas generated by the explosion passing 
through a small hole to move a piston-rod. It is 
claimed that the magazine can hold as many as fifty 
cartridges and fire up to thirty rounds a minute ; but 
the barrel became so hot after doing this that the trial 
had to be stopped. 

The principal result of automatic action would pro- 
bably be excessive waste of cartridges by wild firing 
in the excitement of an engagement. It is to-day as 
true as formerly that it takes on the average a man's 
weight of lead to kill him in battle. 

To our neighbours across the Channel the credit 
also belongs of introducing smokeless powder^ now 
universally used ; that of the Lee-Metford being "cor- 
dite." To prevent the bullets flattening on impact 
they are coated with a hard metal such as nickel and 
its alloys. If the nose is soft, or spUt beforehand, a 

94 



Rifles 

terribly enlarged and lacerated wound is produced ; 
so the Geneva Convention humanely prohibited the 
use of such missiles in warfare. 

Before quitting this part of our subject it is as well 
to add a few words about pistols. 

These have passed through much the same process 
of evolution as the rifle, and have now culminated in 
the many-shotted revolver. 

During the period 1480-1500 the match-lock re- 
volver is said to have been brought into use ; and one 
attributed to this date may be seen in the Tower of 
London. 

Two hundred years ago, Richards, a London gun- 
smith, converted the ancient w^heel-lock into the flint- 
lock; he also rifled his barrel and loaded it at the 
breech. The Richards weapon was double-barrelled, 
and unscrewed for loading at the point where the 
powder-chamber ended ; the ball was placed in this 
chamber in close contact with the powder, and the 
barrel rescrewed. The bullet being a soft leaden ball, 
was forced, when the charge was fired, through the 
rifled barrel with great accuracy of aim. 

The percussion cap did not oust the flint-lock till 
less than a century ago, when many single-barrelled 
pistols, such as the famous Derringer, were produced ; 
these in their turn were replaced by the revolver 
which Colt introduced in 1836-1850. Smith and 
Wesson in the early sixties improved upon it by a 
device for extracting the empty cartridges automati- 
cally. Livermore and Russell of the United States 

95 



Romance of Modern Invention 

invented the ^^ clip," containing several cartridges ; 
but the equally well-known Winchester has its car- 
tridges arranged in a tube below the barrel, whence a 
helical spring feeds them to the breech as fast as they 
are needed. 

At the present time each War Department has its 
own special service weapon. The German Mauser 
magazine-pistol for officer's use fires ten shots in ten 
seconds, a slight pressure of the trigger setting the 
full machinery in motion ; the pressure of gas at each 
explosion does all the rest of the work — extracts and 
ejects the cartridge case, cocks the hammer, and 
presses springs which reload and close the weapon, all 
in a fraction of a second. The Mannlicher is of the 
same automatic type, but its barrel moves to the front, 
leaving space for a fresh cartridge to come up from 
the magazine below, while in the Mauser the breech 
moves to the rear during recoil. The range is half a 
mile. The cartridges are made up in sets of ten in a 
case, which can be inserted in one movement. 



Machine-Guns. 

Intermediate between hand-borne weapons and 
artillery, and partaking of the nature of both, come 
the machine-guns firing small projectiles with extra- 
ordinary rapidity. 

Since the United States made trial of Dr. GatHng's 
miniature battery in the Civil War (i 862-1 865), inven- 
tion has been busy evolving more and more perfect 

96 



Machine-Guns 

types, till the most modern machine-gun is a marvel 
of ingenuity and effectiveness. 

The Gatling machine-gun, which has been much 
improved in late years by the Accles system of " feed/' 
and is not yet completely out of date, consists of a 
circular series of ten barrels — each with its own lock 
— mounted on a central shaft and revolved by a suit- 
able gear. The cartridges are successively fed by 
automatic actions into the barrels, and the hammers 
are so arranged that the entire operation of loading, 
closing the breech, firing and withdrawing the empty 
cartridge-cases (which is known as their ^' longitudinal 
reciprocating motion ") is carried on while the locks 
are kept in constant revolution, along with the barrels 
and breech, by means of a hand-crank. One man 
places a feed-case filled with cartridges into the 
hopper, another turns the crank. As the gun is 
rotated the cartridges drop one by one from the 
feed-cases into the grooves of the carrier, and its 
lock loads and fires each in turn. While the gun 
revolves further the lock, drawing back, extracts and 
drops the empty case ; it is then ready for the next 
cartridge. 

In action five cartridges are always going through 
some process of loading, while five empty shells are 
in different stages of ejection. The latest type, fitted 
with an electro-motor, will fire at the rate of one 
thousand rounds per minute, and eighty rounds have 
actually been fired within ten seconds I It is not, 
however, safe to work these machine-guns so fast, 

97 G 



Romance of Modern Invention 

as the cartridges are apt to be occasionally pulled 
through unfired and then explode among the men's 
legs. The automatic guns, on the contrary, as they 
only work by the explosion, are free from any risk of 
such accidents. 

The feed-drums contain 104 cartridges, and can be 
replaced almost instantly. One drumful can be dis- 
charged in 5J seconds. The small-sized Gatling has 
a drum-feed of 400 cartridges in sixteen sections of 
twenty-five each passed up without interruption. 

The gun is mounted for use so that it can be 
pointed at any angle, and through a wide lateral range, 
without moving the carriage. 

The Gardner. — The Gatling, as originally made, was 
for a time superseded by the Gardner, which differed 
from it in having the barrels (four or fewer in number) 
fixed in the same horizontal plane. This was worked 
by a rotatory handle on the side of the gun. The 
cartridges slid down a feed-case in a column to the 
barrel, where they were fired by a spring acting on a 
hammer. 

The Nordenfelt. — Mr. Nordenfelt's machine-gun 
follows this precedent; its barrels — 10, 5,4, 2, or i 
in number — also being arranged horizontally in a 
strong, rigid frame. Each barrel has its own breech- 
plug, striker, spring, and extractor, and each fires in- 
dependently of the rest, so that all are not out of action 
together. The gun has a swivelled mount easily 
elevated and trained, and the steel frames take up the 
force of the discharge. In rapid firing one gunner 

98 



Machine-Guns 

can work the j&ring-handle while another lays and 
alters the direction. The firing is operated by a lever 
working backwards and forwards by hand, and the 
gun can be discharged at the rate of 600 rounds per 
minute. 

The Hotchkiss, — The Hotchkiss gun, or revolving 
cannon, is on a fresh system, that of intermittent rota- 
tion of the barrels without any rotation of breech or 
mechanism. There is only one loading piston, one 
spring striker, and one extractor for all the barrels. 
The shock of discharge is received against a massive 
fixed breech, which distributes it to the whole body. 

Like the Nordenfeltj however, it can be dismounted 
and put together again without the need of tools. 
The above pattern throws i lb. projectiles. 

The Maxim. — Differing from all these comes the 
Maxim gun, so much in evidence now with both land 
and sea service. It is made up of two portions : — 

(i) Fixed: a barrel-casing, which is also a water- 
jacket, and breech-casing. 

(2) Recoiling: a barrel and two side plates which 
carry lock and crank. 

This recoiling portion works inside the fixed. 
The gun is supplied with ammunition by a belt 
holding 250 cartridges passing through a feed-block 
on the top. Its mechanism \s vjoi^Qd automatically ; 
first by the explosion of the charge, which causes the 
barrel to recoil backwards and extends a strong spring 
which, on reasserting itself, carries it forwards again. 
The recoiling part moves back about an inch, and 

.LofC. 99 



Romance of Modern Invention 

this recoil is utilised by bringing into play mechanism 
which extracts the empty cartridge-case, and on the 
spring carrying the barrel forward again moves a 
fresh one into position. Under the barrel casing is 
the ejector tube through which the empty cartridge- 
cases are ejected from the gun. 

The rate of fire of the Maxim gun is 600 rounds per 
minute. Deliberate fire means about 70 rounds per 
minute ; rapid fire will explode 450 rounds in the 
same time. As the barrel becomes very hot in use 
the barrel-casing contains seven pints of water to keep 
it cool. About 2000 rounds can be fired at short 
intervals ; but in continuous firing the water boils 
after some 600 rounds, and needs replenishing after 
about 1000. A valved tube allows steam, but not 
water to escape. 

The operator works this gun by pressing a firing- 
lever or button. After starting the machine he merely 
sits behind the shield, which protects him from the 
enemy, directing it, as it keeps on firing automatically 
so long as the bands of cartridges are supplied and a 
finger held on the trigger or button. By setting free 
a couple of levers with his left hand, and pressing his 
shoulder against the padded shoulder-piece, he is able 
to elevate or depress, or train the barrel horizontally, 
without in any way interfering with the hail of 
missiles. 

We use two sizes, one with .45 bore for the Navy, 
which takes an all-lead bullet weighing 480 grains, and 
the other with .303 bore, the ordinary nickel-coated 

100 



Machine-Guns 

rifle bullet for the Army. But as the Maxim gun 
can be adapted to every rifle-calibre ammunition it is 
patronised by all governments. 

The gun itself weighs 56 lbs., and is mounted for 
use in various ways : on a tripod, a field stand, or a 
field carriage with wheels. This carriage has sixteen 
boxes of ammunition, each containing a belt of 250 
cartridges, making 4000 rounds altogether. Its total 
weight is about half a ton, so that it can be drawn by 
one horse, and it is built for the roughest cross- 
country work. A little machine, which can be fixed 
to the wheel, recharges the belts with cartridges by 
the working of a handle. 

For ships the Maxim is usually mounted on the 
ordinary naval cone mount, or it can be clamped to 
the bulwark of the deck or the military " top " on the 
mast. 

But there is a most ingenious form of parapet 
mounting, known as the garrison mount, which turns 
the Maxim into a 'disappearing gun," and can be 
used equally well for fortress walls or improvised 
entrenchments. The gun is placed over two little 
wheels on which it can be run along by means of a 
handle pushed behind in something the fashion of a 
lawn-mower. Arrived at its destination, the handle, 
which is really a rack, is turned downwards, and on 
twisting one of the wheels the gun climbs it by means 
of a pinion-cog till it points over the wall, to which 
hooks at the end of two projecting bars firmly fix it, 
the broadened end of the handle being held by its 

lOI 



Romance of Modern Invention 

weight to the ground. It is locked while in use^ but 
a few turns of the wheel cause it to sink out of sight 
in as many seconds. 

The rifle-calibre guns may also be used as very 
light horse artillery to accompany cavalry by being 
mounted on a ^' galloping carriage " drawn by a 
couple of horses, and with two seats for the operators. 
The carriage conveys 3000 rounds, and the steel- 
plated seats turn up and form shields during action. 

It is interesting to notice that an extra light form of 
the gun is made which may be carried strapped on an 
infantryman's back and fired from a tripod. Two of 
these mounted on a double tricycle can be propelled 
at a good pace along a fairly level road, and the 
riders dismounting have, in a few moments, a valuable 
little battery at their disposal. 

The Pom-poifiy of which we have heard so much in 
the late war, is a large edition of the Maxim automatic 
system with some differences in the system. Its 
calibre is \\ inches. Instead of bullets it emits 
explosive shells i lb. in weight, fitted with percussion 
fuses which burst them into about twelve or fourteen 
pieces. The effective range is up to 2000 yards, and 
it will carry to 4000 yards. An improved Pom-pom 
recently brought out hurls a ij lb. shell with effect 
at a mark 3000 yards away, and as far as 6000 yards 
before its energy is entirely exhausted. The muzzle 
velocity of this weapon is 2350 feet a second as 
against the 1800 feet of the older pattern. They both 
fire 300 rounds a minute. 

102 



Machine-Guns 

The Colt automatic gun is an American invention 
whose automatic action is due to explosion of the 
charge, not to recoil. The force by which the 
motions of firing, extracting, and loading are 
performed is derived from the powder-gases, a 
portion of which — passing through a small vent in 
the muzzle — acts by means of a lever on the mechan- 
ism of the gun. 

This is also in two parts : {a) barrel^ attached to 
(^) breech-casing, in which gear for charging, firing, 
and ejecting is contained. The barrel, made of a 
strong alloy of nickel, has its cartridges fed in by 
means of belts coiled in boxes attached to the breech- 
casing, the boxes moving with the latter so that the 
movements of the gun do not affect it. These boxes 
contain 250 cartridges each and are easily replaced. 

The feed-belt is inserted, and the lever thrown 
down and moved backward — once by hand — as far 
as it will go ; this opens the breech and passes the 
first cartridge from the belt to the carrier. The lever 
is then released and the spring causes it to fly 
forward; close the vent, and transfer the cartridge 
from the carrier to the barrel, also compressing the 
mainspring and opening and closing the breech. 

On pulling the trigger the shot is fired, and after 
the bullet has passed the little vent, but is not yet out 
of the muzzle, the force of the expanding gas, acting 
through the vent on the piston, sets a gas-lever in 
operation which acts on the breech mechanism, opens 
breech, ejects cartridge-case, and feeds another cart- 

103 



Romance of Modern Invention 

ridge into the carrier. The gas-lever returning forces 
the cartridge home in the barrel and closes and locks 
the breech. 

The hammer of the gun acts as the piston of an 
air-pump, forcing a strong jet of air into the chamber, 
and through the barrel, thus removing all unburnt 
powder, and thoroughly cleansing it. The metal 
employed is strong enough to resist the heaviest 
charge of nitro-powder, and the accuracy of its aim is 
not disturbed by the vibrations of rapid fire. It does 
not heat fast, so has no need of a water-jacket, any 
surplus heat being removed by a system of radiation. 

The bore is made of any rifle calibre for any small- 
arm ammunition, and is fitted with a safety-bck. For 
our own pieces we use the Lee-Metford cartridges. 
Four hundred shots per minute can be fired. 

The gun consists altogether of ninety-four pieces, 
but the working-pieces, i.e, those only which need 
be separated for cleaning, &c., when in the hands 
of the artilleryman, are less than twenty. It can be 
handled in action by one man, the operation resem- 
bling that of firing a pistol. 

The machine weighs 40 lbs., and for use by cavalry 
or infantry can be mounted on the Dundonald Gallop- 
ing Carriage. The ammunition-box, containing 2000 
rounds ready for use, carries the gun on its upper 
side, and is mounted on a strong steel axle. A pole 
with a slotted end is inserted into a revolving funnel 
on the bend of the shaft, the limbering-up being 
completed by an automatic bolt and plug. 

104 



Heavy Ordnance 



The gun-carriage itself is of steel, with hickory 
wheels and hickory and steel shafts, detachable at 
will. The simple harness suits any saddled cavalry 
horse, and the shafts work in sockets behind the 
rider's legs. Its whole weight with full load of 
ammunition is under four hundredweight. 

Heavy Ordnance. 

As with rifles and the smaller forms of artillery, so 
also with heavy ordnance, the changes and improve- 
ments within the last fifty years have been greater 
than those made during the course of all the previous 
centuries. 

These changes have affected alike not only the 
materials from which a weapon is manufactured, the 
relative size of calibre and length of bore, the fashion 
of mounting and firing, but also the form and weight 
of the projectile, the velocity with which it is thrown, 
and even the substances used in expelling it from 
the gun. 

Compare for a moment the old cast-iron muzzle- 
loaders, stubby of stature, which Wellington's bronzed 
veterans-served with round cannon balls, well packed 
in greasy clouts to make them fit tight, or with shell 
and grape shot, throughout the hard-fought day of 
Waterloo, from a distance which the chroniclers 
measure by paces, so near stood the opposing ranks 
to one another. 

Or stand in imagination upon one of Nelson's 
105 



Romance of Modern Invention 

stately men-o'-war and watch the grimy guns' crews, 
eight or ten to each, straining on the ropes. See the 
still smoking piece hauled inboard, its bore swabbed 
out to clean and cool it, then recharged by the 
muzzle ; home go powder, wad, and the castor full 
of balls or the chain shot to sphnter the enemy's 
masts, rammed well down ere the gun is again run 
out through the port-hole. Now the gunner snatches 
the flaming lintstock and, signal given, applies it to 
the powder grains sprinkled in the touch-hole. A 
salvo of fifty starboard guns goes off in one terrific 
broadside, crashing across the Frenchman's decks 
at such close quarters that in two or three places 
they are set on fire by the burning wads. Next comes 
a cry of ^' Boarders ! " and the ships are grappled 
as the boarding-party scrambles over the bulwarks 
to the enemy's deck, a brisk musket-fire from the 
crowded rigging protecting their advance ; mean- 
while the larboard guns, with their simultaneous dis- 
charge, are greeting a new adversary. 

Such was war a century ago. Compare with it 
the late South African Campaign where the range 
of guns was estimated in miles^ and after a combat 
lasting from morn to eve, the British general could 
report : '' I do not think we have seen a gun or a 
Boer all day." 

The days of hand-to-hand fighting have passed, the 
mel^e in the ranks may be seen no more ; in a few 
years the bayonet may be relegated to the limbo of 
the coat"Of-mail or the cast-iron culverin. Yet the 

1 06 



Heavy Ordnance 

modern battle-scene bristles with the most death- 
dealing weapons which the ingenuity of man has 
ever constructed. The hand-drawn machine-gun 
discharges in a couple of minutes as many missiles 
as a regiment of Wellington's infantry, with a speed 
and precision undreamt of by him. The quick-firing 
long-range naval guns now in vogue could annihilate 
a fleet or destroy a port without approaching close 
enough to catch a glimpse of the personnel of their 
opponents. The deadly torpedo guards our water- 
ways more effectually than a squadron of ships. 

All resources of civilisation have been drawn upon, 
every triumph of engineering secured, to forge such 
weapons as shall strike the hardest and destroy the 
most pitilessly. But strange and unexpected the 
result ! Where we counted our battle-slain by thou- 
sands we now mourn over the death of hundreds ; 
where whole regiments were mown down our am- 
bulances gather wounded in scattered units. Here 
is the bright side of modern war. 

The muzzle-loading gun has had its day, a very long 
day and a successful one. Again and again it has re- 
asserted itself and ousted its rivals, but at last all 
difficulties of construction have been surmounted 
and the breech-loader has ^'come to stay." 

However, our services still contain a large number 
of muzzle-loading guns, many of them built at quite 
a recent period, and adapted as far as possible to 
modern requirements. So to these we will first turn 
our attention. 

107 



Romance of Modern Invention 

The earliest guns were made of cast-iron, but this 
being prone to burst with a large charge, bronze, 
brass, and other tougher materials were for a long 
time employed. Most elaborately chased and orna- 
mented specimens of these old weapons are to be 
seen in the Tower, and many other collections. 

In the utilitarian days of the past century cheapness 
and speed in manufacture were more sought after 
than show. Iron was worked in many new ways to 
resist the pressure of explosion. 

Armstrong of Elswick conceived the idea of build- 
ing up a barrel of coiled iron by joining a series of 
short welded cylinders together, and closing them 
by a solid forged breech-piece. Over all, again, 
wrought-iron coils were shrunk. Subsequently he 
tried a solid forged-iron barrel bored out to form 
a tube. Neither make proving very satisfactory, steel 
tubes were next used, but were too expensive and 
uncertain at that stage of manufacture. Again coiled 
iron was called into requisition, and Mr. Frazer of 
the Royal Gun Factory introduced a system of double 
and triple coils which was found very successful, 
especially when a thin steel inner tube was substi- 
tuted for the iron one (1869). 

All these weapons were rifled, so that there was 
of necessity a corresponding difference in the pro- 
jectile employed. Conical shells being used, studs 
were now placed on the body of the shell to fit into 
the rifling grooves, which were made few in number 
and deeply cut. This was apt to weaken the bore of 

108 



Heavy Ordnance 



the gun ; but on the other hand many studs to fit 
into several shallow grooves weakened the cover of 
the shells. 

Various modifications were tried, and finally a gas- 
check which expands into the grooves was placed at 
the base of the shell. 

The muzzle-loader having thus been turned into 
a very efficient modern weapon the next problem to 
be solved was how to throw a projectile with sufficient 
force to penetrate the iron and steel armour-plates 
then being generally applied to war-ships. " Build 
larger guns " was the conclusion arrived at, and pre- 
sently the arsenals of the Powers were turning out 
mammoth weapons up to loo tons, and even no 
tons in weight with a calibre of i6 inches and more 
for their huge shells. Then was the mighty 35-ton 
^^ Woolwich Infant" born (1872), and its younger but 
still bigger brothers, 81 tons, 16-inch bore, followed 
by the Elswick 100-ton giants, some of which were 
mounted on our defences in the Mediterranean. But 
the fearful concussion of such enormous guns when 
fixed in action on board ship injured the superstruc- 
tion, and even destroyed the boats, and the great 
improvements made in steel both for guns and 
armour soon led to a fresh revolution. Hencefor- 
ward instead of mounting a few very heavy guns 
we have preferred to trust to the weight of metal 
projected by an increased number of smaller size, 
but much higher velocity. And these guns are the 
quick-firing breech-loaders. 

109 



Romance of Modern Invention 

The heaviest of our up-to-date ordnance is of 
moderate calibre, the largest breech - loaders being 
i2-inch, lo-inch, and 9.2-inch guns. But the 
elaborateness of its manufacture is such that one 
big gun takes nearly as long to ''build up" as the 
ship for which it is destined. Each weapon has to 
pass through about sixteen different processes : — 

(i) The solid (or hollow) ingot is forged, 

(2) Annealedy to get rid of strains. 

(3) It is placed horizontally on a lathe and rough- 
turned, 

(4) Rough-bored in a lathe. 

(5) Hardened. Heated to a high temperature and 
plunged, while hot, into a bath of rape oil kept cold 
by a water-bath. It cools slowly for seven to eight 
hours, being moved about at intervals by a crane. 
This makes the steel more elastic and tenacious. 

(6) Annealedy i.e, reheated to 900° Fahr. and slowly 
cooled. Siemens' pyrometer is used in these operations. 

(7) Tested by pieces cut off. 

(8) Turned and bored for the second time. 

(9) Carefully turned again for shrinkage. Outer 
coil expanded till large enough to fit easily over inner. 
Inside, set up vertically in a pit, has outside lowered 
on to it, water and gas being applied to make all 
shrink evenly. Other projections, hoops, rings, &c., 
also shrunk on. 

(10) Finish — bored '^ndi chambered, 

(11) Broached^ or very fine bored, perhaps lapped 
with lead and emery. 

1 10 



Heavy Ordnance 

(12) i^2/f^^ horizontally in a machine. 

(13) Prepared for breech fittings. 

(14) Taken to the Proof Butts for trial. 

(15J Drilled for sockets, sights, &c. Lined and 
engraved. Breech fittings, locks, electric firing gear, 
&c., added. Small adjustments made by filing. 

(16) Browned 01 painted. 

When worn the bore can be lined with a new steel tube. 

These lengthy operations completed, our gun has 
still to be mounted upon its field-carriage, naval cone, 
or disappearing mounting, any of which are compli- 
cated and delicately-adjusted pieces of mechanism, 
the product of much time and labour, which we have 
no space here to describe. 

Some account of the principal parts of these guns 
has already been given, but the method by which the 
breech is closed remains to be dealt with. 

It will be noticed that though guns now barely reach 
half the weight of the monster muzzle-loaders, they 
are even more effective. Thus the 46-ton (12-inch) 
gun hurls an 850-lb. projectile with a velocity of 2750 
foot-seconds, and uses a comparatively small charge. 
The famous ** 81-ton " needed a very big charge for its 
1700-lb.^shell, and had little more than half the velo- 
city and no such power of penetration. This change 
has been brought about by using a slower-burning 
explosive very powerful in its effects ; enlarging the 
chamber to give it sufficient air space, and lengthening 
the chase of the gun so that every particle of the 
powder-gas may be brought into action before the 

I II 



Romance of Modern Invention 

shot leaves the muzzle. This system and the substi- 
tution of steel for the many layers of welded iron, 
makes our modern guns long and slim in comparison 
with the older ones. 

To resist the pressure of the explosion against the 
breech end, a tightly-fitting breech-plug must be em- 
ployed. The most modern and ingenious is the Welin 
plug, invented by a Swedish engineer. The ordinary 
interrupted screw breech-plug has three parts of 
its circumference plane and the other three parts 
^' threaded," or grooved, to screw into corresponding 
grooves in the breech ; thus only half of the circum- 
ference is engaged by the screw. Mr. Welin has cut 
steps on the plug, three of which would be threaded 
to one plane segment, each locking with its counter- 
part in the breech. In this case there are three 
segments engaged to each one left plane, and the 
strength of the screw is almost irresistible. The 
plug, which is hinged at the side, has therefore been 
shortened by one-third, and is light enough to swing 
clear with one touch of the handwheel that first 
rotates and unlocks it. 

The method of firing is this : The projectile lifted 
(by hydraulic power on a ship) into the loading tray 
is swung to the mouth of the breech and pushed into 
the bore. A driving-band attached near its base is 
so notched at the edges that it jams the shell closely 
and prevents it slipping back if loaded at a high angle 
of elevation. The powder charge being placed in the 
chamber the breech-plug is now swung-to and turned 

I 12 



Heavy Ordnance 

till it locks close. The vent-axial or inner part of this 
breech-plug (next to the charge), which is called from 
its shape the *' mushroom-head/' encloses between its 
head and the screw-plug the de Bange obturator, a 
fiat canvas pad of many layers soaked with mutton fat 
tightly packed between discs of tin. When the charge 
explodes, the mushroom-head — forced back upon the 
pad — compresses it till its edges bulge against the tube 
and prevent any escape of gas breechwards. 

The electric spark which fires the charge is passed 
in from outside by means of a minute and ingenious 
apparatus fitted into a little vent or tube in the 
mushroom-head. As the electric circuit cannot be 
completed till the breech-plug is screwed quite home 
there is now no more fear of a premature explosion 
than of double loading. If the electric gear is dis- 
ordered the gun can be fired equally well and safely 
by a percussion tube. 

This description is of a typical large gun,^and may 
be applied to all calibres and also to the larger quick- 
firers. The mechanism as the breech is swung open 
again withdraws the empty cartridge. So valuable 
has de Range's obturator proved, however, that guns 
up to the 6-inch calibre now have the powder charge 
thrown into the chamber in bags, thus saving the 
weight of the metal tubes hitherto necessary. 

Of course several types of breech-loading guns are 
usedjin the Service, but the above are the most modern. 

The favourite mode of construction at the present 
time is the wire-wound barrel, the building up of 

113 H 



Romance of Modern Invention 



which is completed by covering the many layers 
of wire with an outer tube or jacket expanded by 
heat before it is slipped on in order that it may fit 
closely when cold. A previous make, without wire, is 
strengthened by rings or hoops also shrunk on hot. 

The quick-firers proper are of many sizes, 8-inch, 
7.5-inch; 6-inch, 4.7-inch, 4-inch, and 3-inch (12- 
pounders). The naval type is as a rule longer and 
lighter than those made for the rough usage of field 
campaigning and have a much greater range. There are 
also smaller quick-firers, 3-pounders and 6-pounders 
with bore something over i-inch and 2-inch (Norden- 
felt, Hotchkiss, Vickers-Maxim). Some of the high 
velocity 12 -pounders being employed as garrison 
guns along with 6-inch and 4.7-inch, and the large 
calibre howitzers. 

We still use howitzer batteries of 5-inch bore in the 
field and in the siege-train, all being short, rifled, 
breech-loading weapons, as they throw a heavy shell 
with smallish charges at a high angle of elevation, 
but cover a relatively short distance. A new pattern 
of 8-inch calibre is now under consideration. 

It is interesting to contrast the potencies of some 
of these guns, all of which use cordite charges. 



Calibre. 


Charge. 


Weight of 
Shot. 


Muzzle Velocity 

in 

Foot Seconds. 


Number of 

Rounds per 

Minute. 


12 inch 
8 „ 
6 „ 

4.7 M 

3 » 


207 lbs. 
52 „ 
25 „ 

9 » 

2 lbs. 9 oz. 


850 lbs. 
210 „ 
100 „ 
45 » 
12.5 „ 


2750 
2750 

2775 
2600 
2600 


I 

5 
8 

12 
20 



114 




k- 



^^♦t. 




^" i l] 



Heavy Ordnance 



In the armament of our fine Navy guns are roughly 
distributed as follows : — 8i-ton, i3j-inch, and super- 
seded patterns of machine-guns such as Catling's 
Gardner's, and Nordenfelt's, besides a few surviving 
muzzle-loaders, &c., are carried only by the oldest 
battleships. 

The first-class battleships are chiefly supplied with 
four 1 2-inch guns in barbettes, twelve 6-inch as 
secondary batteries, and a number of smaller quick- 
firers on the upper decks and in the fighting tops, also 
for use in the boats, to which are added several Maxims. 
The first-class cruisers have 9.2 as their largest 
calibre, with a lessened proportion of 6-inch, &c. 
Some of the newest bear only 7J or 6-inch guns as 
their heaviest ordnance ; like the second-class cruisers 
which, however, add several 4.7's between these and 
their small quick-firers. 

Vessels of inferior size usually carry nothing more 
powerful than the 4.7. 

All are now armed with torpedo tubes. 
These same useful little quick-firers and machine- 
guns have been the lethal weapons which made the 
armoured trains so formidable. Indeed, there seems 
no limit to their value both for offence and defence, 
for the battle chariot of the ancient Briton has its 
modern successor in the Simms' motor war car lately 
exhibited at the Crystal Palace. This armour-plated 
movable fort is intended primarily for coast defence, 
but can work off beaten tracks over almost any sort 
of country. It is propelled at the rate of nine miles 

115 



Romance of Modern Invention 

an hour by a i6-horse-power motor, carrying all its 
own fuel, two pom-poms, two small Maxims, and 
10,000 rounds of ammunition, besides the necessary 
complement of men and searchlights for night use, 
&c., &c. 

The searchlight, by the way, has taken the place of 
all former inventions thrown from guns, such as 
ground-light balls, or parachute lights with a time-fuse 
which burst in the air and remained suspended, be- 
traying the enemy's proceedings. 

In like manner the Hnked chain and "double- 
headed " shot, the " canister " — iron balls packed in 
thin iron or tin cylinders which would travel about 
350 yards — the " carcasses " filled with inflammable 
composition for firing ships and villages, are as much 
out of date as the solid round shot or cannon-ball. 
Young Shrapnell's invention a century ago of the 
form of shell that bears his name, a number of balls 
arranged in a case containing also a small bursting- 
charge fired either by percussion or by a time-fuse, has 
practically replaced them all. Thrown with great 
precision of aim its effective range is now up to 5000 
yards. A 15-pounder shrapnell shell, for instance, 
contains 192 bullets, and covers several hundred 
yards with the scattered missiles fiying with extreme 
velocity. 

Common shell, from 2J to 3 calibres long, contains 
an explosive only. Another variety is segment shell, 
made of pieces built up in a ring with a bursting 
charge in the centre which presently shatters it. 

116 



Expl 



osives 



The Palliser shell has a marvellous penetrating 
power when used against iron plates. But, mirabih 
dictu ! experiments tried within the past few months 
prove that a soft cap added externally enables a pro- 
jectile to pierce with ease armour which had previ- 
ously defied every attack. 

Explosives. 

Half a century ago gunpowder was still the one 
driving power which started the projectile on its 
flight. It is composed of some 75 parts of saltpetre 
or nitrate of potash, 15 parts of carefully prepared 
charcoal, and 10 parts of sulphur. This composition 
imprisons a large amount of oxygen for combustion, 
and is found to act most successfully when formed 
into rather large prismatic grains. 

On the abolition of the old flint-lock its place was 
taken by a detonating substance enclosed in a copper 
cap, and some time later inventors came forward with 
new and more powerful explosives to supersede the 
use of gunpowder. 

By treating cotton with nitric and sulphuric acid 
reaction gim-cotton was produced ; and a year later 
glycerine treated in the same manner became known 
to commerce as nitro-glycerine» This liquid form 
being inconvenient to handle, some inert granular 
substance such as infusorial earth was used to absorb 
the nitro-glycerine, and dynamite was the result. 

The explosion of gun-cotton was found to be too 
117 



Romance of Modern Invention 

sudden and rapid for rifles or cannon ; it was liable 
to burst the piece instead of blowing out the charge. 
In order to lessen the rapidity of its ignition ordinary 
cotton was mixed with it, or its threads were twisted 
round some inert substance. 

When repeating-rifles and machine-guns came into 
general use a smokeless powder became necessary. 
Such powders as a rule contain nitro-cellulose (gun- 
cotton) or nitro-glycerine, or both. These are com- 
bined into a plastic, gluey composition, which is then 
made up into sticks or pellets of various shapes, and 
usually of large size to lessen the extreme rapidity of 
their combustion. Substances such as tan, paraffin, 
starch, bran, peat, &c., &c., and many mineral salts, 
are used in forming low explosives from high ones. 

To secure complete combustion some of the larger 
pellets are made with a central hole, or even pierced 
by many holes, so that the fire penetrates the entire 
mass and carries off all its explosive qualities. 

Our cordite consists of nitro-glycerine dissolving 
di-nitro cellulose by the acid of a volatile solvent and 
a mineral jelly or oil. This compound is semi-fluid, 
and being passed like macaroni through round holes 
in a metal plate it forms strings or cords of varying 
size according to the diameter of the holes. Hence 
the name, cordite. 

Many experiments in search of more powerful 
explosives resulted in an almost universal adoption of 
picric acid as the base. This acid is itself produced 
by the action of nitric acid upon carbolic acid, and 

ii8 



Expl 



osives 



each nation has its own fashion of preparing it for 
artillery. 

The French began with melinite in 1885, this being 
a mixture of picric acid and gun-cotton. 

The composition of lyddite (named from its place of 
manufacture, Lydd, in Kent) is a jealously-guarded 
British secret. This substance was first used in 5-inch 
howitzers during the late Soudan campaign, playing a 
part in the bombardment of Omdurman. The effect 
of the 50-lb. lyddite shells upon the South African 
kopjes is described as astounding. When the yellow 
cloud had cleared away trees were seen uprooted, rocks 
pulverised, the very face of the earth had changed. 

Several attempts have been made to utilise dynamite 
for shells, some of the guns employing compressed air 
as their motive power. The United States some years 
ago went to great expense in setting up for this pur- 
pose heavy pneumatic plant, which has recently been 
disposed of as too cumbrous. Dudley's ^^ Aerial 
Torpedo" gun discharged a 13-lb. shell containing 
explosive gelatine, gun-cotton, and fulminate of mer- 
cury by igniting the small cordite charge in a parallel 
tube, through a vent in which the partially cooled 
gases acted on the projectile in the barrel. This was 
rotated in the air by inclined blades on a tailpiece, as 
the barrel could not be rifled for fear of the heat set 
up by friction. Some guns actuated on much the 
same principle are said to have been used with effect 
in the Hispano- American war. Mr. Hudson Maxim 
with his explosive *' maximite " claims to throw half a 

119 



Romance of Modern Invention 

ton of dynamite about a mile, and a one-ton shell to 
half that distance. 

But even these inventors are outstripped by Professor 
Birkeland, who undertakes to hurl a projectile v^eigh- 
ing two tons from an iron tube coiled with copper wire 
down which an electric current is passed ; thus doing 
away entirely with the need of a firing-charge. 



In the Gun Factory. 

Let us pay a visit to one of our gun factories and 
get some idea of the multiform activities necessary 
to the turning out complete of a single piece of 
ordnance or a complicated machine-gun. We enter 
the enormous workshop, glazed as to roof and sides, 
full of the varied buzz and whirr and clank of the 
machinery. Up and down the long bays stand row 
upon row of lathes, turning, milling, polishing, boring, 
rifling — all moving automatically, and with a precision 
which leaves nothing to be desired. The silent attend- 
ants seem to have nothing in their own hands, they 
simply watch that the cutting does not go too far, 
and with a touch of the guiding handles regulate the 
pace or occasionally insert a fresh tool. The bits used 
in these processes are self-cleaning, so the machinery 
is never clogged;; and on the ground lie little heaps of 
brass chips cut away by the minute milling tools ; or 
in other places it is bestrewn with shavings of brass 
and steel which great chisels peel off as easily as a 
carpenter shaves a deal board. 

120 



In the Gun Factory 

Here an enormous steel ingot, forged solid, heated 
again and again in a huge furnace and beaten by 
steam-hammers, or pressed by hydraulic power 
between each heating till it is brought to the desired 
size and shape, is having its centre bored through by 
a special drill which takes out a solid core. This 
operation is termed '^ trepanning," and is applied to 
guns not exceeding eight inches ; those of larger caHbre 
being rough-bored 'on a lathe, and mandrils placed 
in them during the subsequent forgings. The tre- 
mendous heat generated during the boring processes 
— we may recall how Benjamin Thompson made 
water boil by the experimental boring of a cannon — 
is kept dow^n by streams of soapy water continually 
pumped through and over the metal. We notice this 
flow of lubricating fluid in all directions, from oil drop- 
ping slowly on to the small brass-milling machines to 
this fountain-play of water which makes a pleasant 
undertone amidst the jangle of the machines. But 
these machines are less noisy than we anticipated ; 
in their actual working they emit scarcely the slightest 
sound. What strikes us more than the supreme exact- 
ness with which each does its portion of the work, is 
the great deliberateness of its proceeding. All the 
hurry and bustle is above us, caused by the driving- 
bands from the engine, which keeps the whole 
machinery of the shed in motion. Suddenly, with 
harsh creakings, a great overhead crane comes jarring 
along the bay, drops a chain, grips up a gun-barrel, 
and, handling this mass of many tons' weight as easily 

121 



Romance of Modern Invention 

as we should lift a walking-stick, swings it off to 
undergo another process of manufacture. 

We pass on to the next lathe where a still larger 
forging is being turned externally, supported on 
specially devised running gear, many different cut- 
ters acting upon it at the same time, so that it is 
gradually assuming the tapering, banded appearance 
faniiliar to us in the completed state. 

We turn, fairly bewildered, from one stage of 
manufacture to another. Here is a gun whose bore 
is being ^' chambered " to the size necessary for 
containing the firing charge. Further along we 
examine a more finished weapon in process of pre- 
paration to receive the breech-plug and other fittings. 
Still another we notice which has been " fine-bored " 
to a beautifully smooth surface but is being im- 
proved yet more by " lapping " with lead and emery 
powder. 

In the next shed a marvellous machine is rifling 
the interior of a barrel with a dexterity absolutely 
uncanny, for the tool which does the rifling has to 
be rotated in order to give the proper "twist" at 
the same moment as it is advancing lengthwise down 
the bore. The grooves are not made simultaneously 
but as a rule one at a time, the distance between 
them being kept by measurements on a prepared 
disc. 

Now we have reached the apparatus for the wire- 
wound guns, a principle representing the ne plus 
ultra of strength and durability hitherto evolved. 

122 



In the Gun Factory 

The rough-bored gun is placed upon a lathe which 
revolves slowly, drawing on to it from a reel mounted 
at one side a continuous layer of steel ribbon about 
a quarter of an inch wide. On a 12-inch gun there is 
wound some 117 miles of this wire ! fourteen layers of 
it at the muzzle end and seventy-five at the breech 
end. Heavy weights regulate the tension of the wire, 
which varies for each layer, the outermost being at 
the lowest tension, which will resist a pressure of 
over 100 tons to the square inch. 

We next enter the division in which the gun 
cradles and mounts are prepared, where we see some 
of the heaviest work carried out by electric dynamos, 
the workman sitting on a raised platform to keep care- 
ful watch over his business. 

Passing . through this with interested but cursory 
inspection of the cone mountings for quick-firing 
naval guns, some ingenious elevating and training gear 
and a field carriage whose hydraulic buffers merit 
closer examination, we come to the shell department 
where all kinds of projectiles are manufactured. 
Shrapnel in its various forms, armour-piercing shells, 
forged steel or cast-iron, and small brass cartridges 
for the machine-guns may be found here ; and the 
beautifully delicate workmanship of the fuse arrange- 
ments attracts our admiration. But we may not 
linger ; the plant for the machine-guns themselves 
claim our attention. 

Owing to the complexity and minute mechanism 
of these weapons almost a hundred different machines 

123 



Romance of Modern Invention 

are needed, some of the milling machines taking a 
large selection of cutters upon one spindle. Indeed, 
in many parts of the works one notices the men 
changing their tools for others of different size or 
application. Some of the boring machines work 
two barrels at the same time, others can drill three 
barrels or polish a couple simultaneously. But there 
are hundreds of minute operations which need to 
be done separately, down to the boring of screw 
holes and cutting the groove on a screw-head. 
Many labourers are employed upon the lock alone. 
And every portion is gauged correctly to the most 
infinitesimal fraction, being turned out by the 
thousand, that every separate item may be inter- 
changeable among weapons of the same make. 

Look at the barrel which came grey and dull from 
its first turning now as it is dealt with changing 
into bright silver. Here it is adjusted upon the 
hydraulic rifling machine which will prepare it to 
carry the small-arm bullet (.303 inch). That one of 
larger calibre is rifled to lire a small shell. Further 
on, the barrels and their jackets are being fitted 
together and the different parts assembled and screwed 
up. We have not time to follow the perfect imple- 
ment to its mounting, nor to do more than glance 
at those howitzers and the breech mechanism of 
the 6-inch quick-firers near which our guide indicates 
piles of fiat cases to keep the de Bange obturators 
from warping while out of use. For the afternoon 
is waning and the foundry still unvisited. 

124 



I 



In the Gun Factory 

To reach it we pass through the smith's shop and 
pause awhile to watch a supply of spanners being 
roughly stamped by an immense machine out of 
metal plates and having their edges tidied off be- 
fore they can be further perfected. A steam-hammer 
is busily engaged in driving mandrils of increasing 
size through the centre of a red-hot forging. The 
heat from the forges is tremendous, and though it 
is tempered by a spray of falling water we are glad 
to escape into the next shed. 

Here we find skilled workmen carefully preparing 
moulds by taking in sand the exact impression of 
a wooden dummy. Fortunately we arrive just as a 
series of casts deeply sunk in the ground are about 
to be made. Two brawny labourers bear forward 
an enormous iron crucible, red-hot from the furnace, 
filled with seething liquid — manganese bronze, we are 
told — which, when an iron bar is 'dipped into it, 
throws up tongues of beautiful greenish-golden flame. 
The smith stirs and clears off the scum as coolly as a 
cook skims her broth ! Now it is ready, the crucible 
is again lifted and its contents poured into a large 
funnel from which it flows into the moulds beneath 
and fills them to the level of the floor. At each 
one a helper armed with an iron bar takes his stand 
and stirs again to work up all dross and air-bubbles 
to the surface before the metal sets — a scene worthy 
of a painter's brush. 
And so we leave them. 



125 



DIRIGIBLE TORPEDOES. 

The history of warlike inventions is the history of a 
continual see-saw between the discovery of a new 
means of defence and the discovery of a fresh means 
of attack. At one time a shield is devised to repel 
a javelin ; at another a machine to hurl the javelin 
with increased violence against the shield ; then the 
shield is reinforced by complete coats of mail, and so 
on. The ball of invention has rolled steadily on into 
our own times, gathering size as it rolls, and bringing 
more and more startling revolutions in the art of war. 
To-day it is a battle between the forces of nature, 
controllable by man in the shape of " high explosives," 
and the resisting power of metals tempered to extreme 
toughness. 

At present it looks as if, on the sea at least, the 
attack were stronger than the defence. Our warships 
may be cased in the hardest metal several inches 
thick until they become floating forts, almost im- 
pregnable to the heaviest shells. They may be pro- 
vided with terrible engines able to give blow for blow, 
and be manned with the stoutest hearts in the world. 
And yet, were a sea-fight in progress, a blow, crushing 
and resistless, might at any time come upon the vessel 
from a quarter whence, even though suspected, its 

126 



Dirigible Torpedoes 

coming might escape notice — below the waterline. 
Were it possible to case an ironclad from deck to 
keel in foot-thick plating, the metal would crumple 
like a biscuit-box under the terrible impact of the 
topedo. 

This destructive weapon is an object of awe not 
so much from what it has done as from what it can 
do. The instances of a torpedo shivering a vessel 
in actual warfare are but few. Yet its moral effect 
must be immense. Even though it may miss its 
mark, the very fact of its possible presence will, 
especially at night-time, tend to keep the command- 
ing minds of a fleet very much on the stretch, and 
to destroy their efficiency. A torpedo knows no 
half measures. It is either entirely successful or 
utterly useless. Its construction entails great ex- 
pense, but inasmuch as it can, if directed aright, send 
a million of the enemy's money and a regiment of 
men to the bottom, the discharge of a torpedo is, 
after all, but the setting of a sprat to catch a whale. 

The aim of inventors has been to endow the 
dirigible torpedo, fit for use in the open sea, with 
such qualities that when once launched on its murder- 
ous course it can pursue its course in the required 
direction without external help. The difficulties to 
be overcome in arriving at a serviceable weapon 
have been very great owing to the complexity of the 
problem. A torpedo cannot be fired through water 
like a cannon shell through air. Water, though 
yielding, is incompressible, and offers to a moving 

127 



Romance of Modern Invention 

body a resistance increasing with the speed of that 
body. Therefore the torpedo must contain its own 
motive power and its own steering apparatus, and 
be in effect a miniature submarine vessel complete 
in itself. To be out of sight and danger it must 
travel beneath the surface and yet not sink to the 
bottom ; to be effective it must possess great speed, a 
considerable sphere of action, and be able to counter- 
act any chance currents it may meet on its way. 

Among purely automobile torpedoes the Whitehead 
is easily first. After thirty years it still holds the lead 
for open sea work. It is a very marvel of ingenious 
adaptation of means to an end, and as it has ful- 
filled most successfully the conditions set forth above 
for an effective projectile it will be interesting to 
examine in some detail this most valuable weapon. 

In 1873 one Captain Lupuis of the Austrian navy 
experimented with a small fireship which he directed 
along the surface of the sea by means of ropes and 
guiding lines. This fireship was to be loaded with 
explosives which should ignite immediately on coming 
into collision with the vessel aimed at. The Austrian 
Government declared his scheme unworkable in its 
crude form, and the Captain looked about for some one 
to help him throw what he felt to be a sound idea 
into a practical shape. He found the man he wanted 
in Mr. Whitehead, who was at that time manager 
of an engineering establishment at Fiume. Mr. White- 
head fell in enthusiastically with his proposition, at 
once discarded the compUcated system of guiding 

128 



Dirigible Torpedoes 

ropes, and set to work to solve the problem on his 
own lines. At the end of two years, during which 
he worked in secret, aided only by a trusted mechanic 
and a boy, his son, he constructed the first torpedo 
of the type that bears his name. It was made of 
steel, was fourteen inches in diameter, weighed 300 
lbs., and carried eighteen pounds of dynamite as 
explosive charge. But its powers were limited. It 
could attain a rate of but six knots an hour under 
favourable conditions, and then for a short distance 
only. Its conduct was uncertain. Sometimes it 
would run along the surface, at others make plunges 
for the bottom. However, the British Government, 
recognising the importance of Mr. Whitehead's work, 
encouraged him to perfect his instrument, and paid 
him a large sum for the patent rights. Pattern suc- 
ceeded pattern, until comparative perfection was 
reached. 

Described briefly, the Whitehead torpedo is cigar- 
shaped, blunt-nosed and tapering gradually towards 
the tail, so following the lines of a fish. Its length 
is twelve times its diameter, which varies in different 
patterns from fourteen to nineteen inches. At the 
fore end is the striker, and at the tail are a couple 
of three-bladed screws working on one shaft in 
opposite directions, to economise power and obviate 
any tendency of the torpedo to travel in a curve ; and 
two sets of rudders, the one horizontal, the other 
vertical. The latest form of the torpedo has a speed of 
twenty-nine knots and a range of over a thousand yards. 

129 I 



Romance of Modern Invention 

The torpedo is divided into five compartments by 
watertight steel bulkheads. At the front is the ex- 
plosive heady containing wet gun-cotton, or some 
other explosive. The *' war head," as it is called, is 
detachable, and for practice purposes its place is 
taken by a dummy-head filled with wood to make 
the balance correct. 

Next comes the air chamber^ filled with highly-com- 
pressed air to drive the engines ; after it the balance 
chamber, containing the apparatus for keeping the 
torpedo at its proper depth ; then the engine-roo7n ; 
and, last of all, the buoyancy chamber^ which is air-tight 
and prevents the torpedo from sinking at the end 
of its run. 

To examine the compartments in order : — 

In the very front of the torpedo is the pistol and 
primer-charge for igniting the gun-cotton. Especial 
care has been taken over this part of the mechanism, 
to prevent the torpedo being as dangerous to friends 
as to foes. The pistol consists of a steel plug sliding 
in a metal tube, at the back end of which is the 
fulminating charge. Until the plug is driven right in 
against this charge there can be no explosion. Three 
precautions are taken against this happening pre- 
maturely. In the first place, there is on the forward 
end of the plug a thread cut, up which a screw-fan 
travels as soon as it strikes the water. Until the 
torpedo has run forty-five feet the fan has not reached 
the end of its travel, and the plug consequently 
cannot be driven home. Even when the plug is 

130 



Dirigible Torpedoes 

quite free only a heavy blow will drive it in, as a 
little copper pin has to be sheared through by the 
impact. And before the screw can unwind at all, a 
safety-pin must be withdrawn at the moment of 
firing. So that a torpedo is harmless until it has 
passed outside the zone of danger to the discharging 
vessel. 

The detonating charge is thirty-eight grains of 
fulminate of mercury, and the primer-charge consists 
of six one-ounce discs ^of dry gun-cotton contained 
in a copper cylinder, the front end of which is 
connected with the striker-tube of the pistol. The 
fulminate, on receiving a blow, expands 2500 times, 
giving a violent shock to the gun-cotton discs, which 
in turn explode and impart a shock to the main 
charge, 200 lbs. of gun-cotton. 

The air chamber is made of the finest compressed 
steel, or of phosphor-bronze, a third of an inch thick. 
When ready for action this chamber has to bear a 
pressure of 1350 lbs. to the square inch. So severe is 
the compression that in the largest-sized torpedoes 
the air in this chamber weighs no less than 63 lbs. 
The air is forced in by very powerful pumps of a 
special design. Aft of this chamber is that containing 
the stop-valve and steering-gear. The stop-valve is a 
species of air-tap sealing the air chamber until the 
torpedo is to be discharged. The valve is so arranged 
that it is impossible to insert the torpedo into the 
firing-tube before the valve has been opened, and so 
brought the air chamber into communication with 

131 



Romance of Modern Invention 

the starting-valve, which does not admit air to the 
engines till after the projectile has left the tube. 

The steering apparatus is undoubtedly the most in- 
genious of the many clever contrivances packed into 
a Whitehead torpedo. Its function is to keep the 
torpedo on an even keel at a depth determined 
before the discharge. This is effected by means 
of two agencies, a swinging weight, and a valve 
which is driven in by water pressure as the torpedo 
sinks. When the torpedo points head downwards 
the weight swings forward, and by means of connect- 
ing levers brings the horizontal rudders up. As 
the torpedo rises the weight becomes vertical and 
the rudder horizontal. This device only insures 
that the torpedo shall travel horizontally. The 
valve makes it keep its proper depth by working 
in conjunction with the pendulum. The principle, 
which is too complicated for full description, is, put 
briefly, a tendency of the valve to correct the 
pendulum whenever the latter swings too far. Lest 
the pendulum should be violently shaken by the dis- 
charge there is a special controlling gear which keeps 
the rudders fixed until the torpedo has proceeded 
a certain distance, when the steering mechanism is 
released. The steering-gear does not work directly 
on the rudder. Mr. Whitehead found in his earher 
experiments that the pull exerted by the weight and 
valve was not sufficient to move the rudders against 
the pressure of the screws. He therefore introduced 
a beautiful little auxiliary engine, called the servo- 

132 



Dirigible Torpedoes 

motor, which is to the torpedo what the steam steering- 
gear is to a ship. The servo-motor, situated in the 
engine-room^ is only four inches long, but the power it 
exerts by means of compressed air is so great that a 
pressure of half an ounce exerted by the steering-gear 
produces a pull of i6o lbs. on the rudders. 

The engines consist of three single-action cylinders, 
their cranks working at an angle of 120° to one 
another, so that there is no "dead" or stopping 
point in their action. They are very small, but, 
thanks to the huge pressure in the air chamber, 
develop nearly thirty-one horse-power. Lest they 
should ^'race," or revolve too quickly, while passing 
from the tube to the water and do themselves serious 
damage, they are provided with a " delay action valve," 
which is opened by the impact of the torpedo against 
the water. Further, lest the air should be admitted 
to the cylinders at a very high pressure gradually 
decreasing to zero, a " reducing valve " or governor is 
added to keep the engines running at a constant speed. 

Whitehead torpedoes are fired from tubes above or 
below the waterline. Deck tubes have the advantage 
of being more easily aimed, but when loaded they are 
a source of danger, as any stray bullet or shell from 
an enemy's ship might explode the torpedo with dire 
results. There is therefore an increasing preference 
for submerged tubes. An ingenious device is used 
for aiming the torpedo, which makes allowances for 
the speed of the ship from which it is fired, the speed 
of the ship aimed at, and the speed of the torpedo 

133 



Romance of Modern Invention 

itself. When the moment for firing arrives, the 
officer in charge presses an electric button, which 
sets in motion an electric magnet fixed to the side of 
the tube. The magnet releases a heavy ball v^hich 
falls and turns the " firing rod." Compressed air or a 
powder discharge is brought to bear on the rear end 
of the torpedo, which, if submerged, darts out from 
the vessel's side along a guiding bar, from which it is 
released at both ends simultaneously, thus avoiding 
the great deflection towards the stern which would 
occur were a broadside torpedo not held at the nose 
till the tail is clear. This guiding apparatus enables 
a torpedo to leave the side of a vessel travelling at 
high speed almost at right angles to the vessel's path. 

It will be easily understood that a Whitehead tor- 
pedo is a costly projectile, and that its value — £s^o or 
more — makes the authorities very careful of its wel- 
fare. During practice with " blank " torpedoes a 
*^ Holmes light " is attached. This light is a canister 
full of calcium phosphide to which water penetrates 
through numerous holes, causing gas to be thrown 
off and rise to the surface, where, on meeting with 
the oxygen of the air, it bursts into flame and gives 
off dense volumes of heavy smoke, disclosing the 
position of the torpedo by night or day. 

At Portsmouth are storehouses containing upwards 
of a thousand torpedoes. Every torpedo is at inter- 
vals taken to pieces, examined, tested, and put to- 
gether again after full particulars have been taken 
down on paper. Each steel ^^ baby " is kept bright 

134 



Dirigible Torpedoes 

and clean, coated with a thin layer of oil, lest a single 
spot of rust should mar its beauty. An interesting 
passage from Lieutenant G. E. Armstrong's book on 
*' Torpedoes and Torpedo Vessels " will illustrate the 
scrupulous exactness observed in all things relating 
to the torpedo depots : ^^ As an example of the care 
with which the stores are kept it may be mentioned 
that a particular tiny pattern of brass screw which 
forms part of the torpedo's mechanism and which 
is valued at about twopence-halfpenny per gross, is 
never allowed to be a single number wrong. On one 
occasion, when the stocktaking took place, it was 
found that instead of 5000 little screws being accounted 
for by the man who was told off to count them, there 
were only 4997. Several foolscap letters were written 
and exchanged over these three small screws, though 
their value was not more than a small fraction of 
a farthing." 

The classic instance of the effectiveness of this 
type of torpedo is the battle of the Yalu, fought be- 
tween the Japanese and Chinese fleets in 1894. The 
Japanese had been pounding their adversaries for 
hours with their big guns without producing decisive 
results. So they determined upon a torpedo attack, 
which was delivered early in the morning under cover 
of darkness, and resulted in the destruction of a 
cruiser, the Ting- Yuen. The next night a second 
incursion of the Japanese destroyers wrecked another 
cruiser, the Lai Yuen, which sunk within five minutes 
of being struck ; sank the Wet Yuen, an old wooden 

135 



Romance of Modern Invention 

vessel used as a training-school ; and blew a large 
steam launch out of the water on to an adjacent 
wharf. These hits " below the belt " were too much 
for the Chinese, who soon afterwards surrendered to 
their more scientific and better equipped foes. 

If a general naval war broke out to-day most 
nations would undoubtedly pin their faith to the 
Whitehead torpedo for use in the open sea, now that 
its accuracy has been largely increased by the gyro- 
scope, a heavy flywheel attachment revolving rapidly 
at right angles to the path of the torpedo, and render- 
ing a change of direction almost impossible. 

For harbour defence the Brennan or its American 
rival, the Sims-Edison, might be employed. They 
are both torpedoes dirigible from a fixed base by 
means of connecting wires. The presence of these 
wires constitutes an obstacle to their being of service 
in a fleet action. 

The Brennan is used by our naval authorities. It 
is the invention of a Melbourne watchmaker. Being 
a comparatively poor man, Mr. Brennan applied to 
the Colonial Government for grants to aid him in the 
manufacture and development of his torpedo, and he 
was supplied with sufficient money to perfect it. In 
1 88 1 he was requested by our Admiralty to bring his 
invention to England, where it was experimented 
upon, and pronounced so efficient for harbour and 
creek defence that at the advice of the Royal Engi- 
neers Mr. Brennan was paid large sums for his 
patents and services. 

136 



Dirigible Torpedoes 

The Brennan torpedo 'derives its motive power from 
a very powerful engine on shore, capable of develop- 
ing 100 horse-power, with which it is connected by 
stout piano wires. One end of these wires is wound 
on two reels inside the torpedo, each working a 
screw; the other end is attached to two winding 
drums driven at high velocity by the engine on shore. 
As the drums wind in the wire the reels in the torpedo 
revolve ; consequently, the harder the torpedo is pulled 
back the faster it moves forward, liked a trained trot- 
ting mare. The steering of the torpedo is effected by 
alterations in the relative speeds of the drums, and 
consequently of the screws. The drums run loose on 
the engine axle, and are thrown in or out of gear by 
means of a friction-brake, so that their speed can be 
regulated without altering the pace of the engines. 
Any increase in the speed of one drum causes a 
corresponding decrease in the speed of the other. 
The torpedo can be steered easily to right or left 
within an arc of forty degrees on each side of straight 
ahead ; but when once launched it cannot be retrieved 
except by means of a boat. Its path is marked by a 
Holmes light, described above. It has a 200-lb. gun- 
cotton charge, and is fitted with an apparatus for 
maintaining a proper depth very similar to that used 
in the Whitehead torpedo. 

The Sims-Edison torpedo differs from the Brennan 
in its greater obedience to orders and in its motive 
power being electrically transmitted through a single 
connecting cable. It is over thirty feet in length and 

137 



Romance of Modern Invention 

two feet in diameter. Attached to the torpedo proper 
by rods is a large copper float, furnished with balls 
to show the operator the path of the torpedo. The 
torpedo itself is in four parts : the explosive head ; 
the magazine of electric cables, which is paid out as 
the torpedo travels ; the motor room ; and the com- 
partment containing the steering-gear. The projectile 
has a high speed and long range — over four thousand 
yards. It can twist and turn in any direction, and, if 
need be, be called to heel. Like the Brennan, it has 
the disadvantage of a long trailing wire, which could 
easily become entangled ; and it might be put out of 
action by any damage inflicted on its float by the 
enemy's guns. But it is likely to prove a very effective 
harbour-guard if brought to the test. 

In passing to the Orling-Armstrong torpedo we 
enter the latest phase of torpedo construction. Seeing 
the disadvantages arising from wires, electricians have 
sought a means of controlling torpedoes without any 
tangible connection. Wireless telegraphy showed that 
such a means was not beyond the bounds of possi- 
bility. Mr. Axel Orling, a Swede, working in concert 
with Mr. J. T. Armstrong, has lately proved that a 
torpedo can be steered by waves of energy transmitted 
along rays of light, or perhaps it would be more cor- 
rect to say along shafts of a form of X-rays. 

Mr. Orling claims for his torpedo that it is capable 
of a speed of twenty-two knots or more an hour ; that 
it can be called to heel, and steered to right or left at 
will ; that as long as it is in sight it is controllable by 

138 



Dirigible Torpedoes 

rays invisible to the enemy ; that not merely one, but 
a number of torpedoes can be directed by the same 
beams of light ; that, as it is submerged, it would, even 
if detected, be a bad mark for the enemy's guns. 

The torpedo carries a shaft which projects above 
the water, and bears on its upper end a white disc to 
receive the rays and transmit them to internal motors 
to be transmuted into driving power. The rod also 
carries at night an electric light, shaded on the enemy's 
side, but rendering the whereabouts of the torpedo 
very visible to the steerer. 

Mr. Orling's torpedo acts throughout in a cruelly 
calculating manner. Before its attack a ship would 
derive small advantage from a crinoline of steel nett- 
ing ; for the large torpedo conceals in its head a 
smaller torpedo, which, as soon as the netting is 
struck, darts out and blasts an opening through which 
its longer brother, after a momentary delay, can easily 
follow. The netting penetrated, the torpedo has yet 
to strike twice before exploding. On the first impact, 
a pin, projecting from the nose, is driven in to reverse 
the engines, and at the same time a certain nut com- 
mences to travel along a screw. The nut having 
worked^ts way to the end of the thread, the head of 
the torpedo fills slowly through a valve, giving it a 
downward slant in front. The engines are again 
reversed and the nut again travels, this time bringing 
the head of the torpedo up, so as to strike the vessel 
at a very effective angle from below. 

This torpedo has passed beyond the experimental 

139 



Romance of Modern Invention 

stage. It is reported that by command of the Swedish 
Government, to whom Mr, OrHng offered his inven- 
tion, and of the King, who takes a keen interest in the 
ideas of his young countryman, a number of experi- 
ments were some time ago carried out in the Swedish 
rivers. Torpedoes were sent 2J miles, directed as 
desired, and made to rise or sink — all this without 
any tangible connection. The Government was sufH- 
ciehtly satisfied with the result to take up the patents, 
as furnishing a cheap means of defending their coasts. 
Mr. Orling has described what he imagines would 
happen in case of an attack on a position protected 
by his ingenious creations. " Suppose that I had 
twelve torpedoes hidden away under ten feet of 
water in a convenient little cove, and that I was 
directed to annihilate a hostile fleet just appearing 
above the horizon. Before me, on a little table per- 
haps, I should have my apparatus ; twelve buttons 
would be under my fingers. Against each button 
there would be a description of the torpedo to which 
it was connected ; it would tell me its power of de- 
struction, and the power of its machinery, and for 
what distance it would go. On each button, also, 
would be indicated the time that I must press it to 
release the torpedoes. Well now, I perceive a large 
vessel in the van of the approaching fleet. I put my 
fingers on the button which is connected with my 
largest and most formidable w^eapon. I press the 
button — perhaps for twelve seconds. The torpedo is 
pushed forward from its fastenings by a special spring, 

140 



Dirigible Torpedoes 

a small pin is extracted from it, and immediately the 
motive machinery is set in motion, and underneath 
the water goes my little agent of destruction, and 
there is nothing to tell the ship of its doom. I place 
my hand on another button, and according to the 
time I press it I steer the torpedo ; the rudder answers 
to the rays, and the rays answer to the will of my 
mind.",i 

If this torpedo acts fully up to its author's expecta- 
tions, naval warfare, at least as at present conducted, 
will be impossible. There appears to be no reason 
why this torpedo should not be worked from ship- 
board ; and we cannot imagine that hostile ships 
possessing such truly infernal machines would care 
to approach within miles of one another, especially 
if the submarine be reinforced by the aerial torpedo, 
different patterns of which are in course of construc- 
tion by Mr. Orling and Major Unge, a brother Swede. 
The Orling type will be worked by the new rays, 
strong enough to project it through space. Major 
Unge's will depend for its motive power upon a 
succession of impulses obtained by the ignition of a 
slow-burning gas, passing through a turbine in the 
rear of the torpedo. The inventor hopes for a range 
of at least six miles. 

What defence would be possible against such 
missiles ? Liable to be shattered from below, or 
shivered from above, the warship will be placed at 
an ever-increasing disadvantage. Its size will only 

^ Pearson's Magazine. 
141 



Romance of Modern Invention 

render it an easier mark ; its strength, bought at the 
expense of weight, will be but the means of insuring 
a quicker descent to the sea's bottom. Is it not 
probable that sea-fights will become more and more 
matters of a few terrible, quickly-delivered blows ? 
Human inventions will hold the balance more and 
more evenly between nations of unequal size, first on 
sea, then on land, until at last, as we may hope, 
even the hottest heads and bravest hearts will shrink 
from courting what will be less war than sheer anni- 
hilation, and war, man's worst enemy, will be itself 
annihilated. 



142 



SUBMARINE BOATS. 

The introduction of torpedoes for use against an 
enemy's ships below the waterHne has led by natural 
stages to the evolution of a vessel which may approach 
unsuspected close enough to the object of attack to 
discharge its missile effectively. Before the search- 
light was adopted a night surprise gave due conceal- 
ment to small craft ; but now that the gloom of 
midnight can be in an instant flooded with the 
brilliance of day a more subtle mode of attack 
becomes necessary. 

Hence the genesis of the submarine or submersible 
boat, so constructed as to disappear beneath the sea 
at a safe distance from the doomed ship, and when 
its torpedo has been sped to retrace its invisible 
course until outside the radius of destruction. 

To this end many so-called submarine boats have 
been invented and experimented with during recent 
years. The idea is an ancient one revived, as indeed 
are the large proportion of our boasted modern dis- 
coveries. 

Aristotle describes a vessel of this kind (a diving-bell 
rather than a boat, however), used in the siege of 
Tyre more than two thousand years ago ; and also 
refers to the divers being provided with an air-tube, 

143 



Romance of Modern Invention 

" like the trunk of an elephant/' by means of which 
they drew a fresh supply of air from above the 
surface — a contrivance adopted in more than one of 
our modern submarines. Alexander the Great is said 
to have employed divers in warfare ; Pliny speaks of 
an ingenious diving apparatus, and Bacon refers to 
air-tubes used by divers. We even find traces of 
weapons of offence being employed. Calluvius is 
credited with the invention of a submarine gun for 
projecting Greek fire. 

The Bishop of Upsala in the sixteenth century 
gives a somewhat elaborate description of certain 
leather skiffs or boats used to scuttle ships by attack- 
ing them from beneath, two of which he claims to 
have personally examined. In 1629 we read that the 
Barbary corsairs fixed submarine torpedoes to the 
enemy's keel by means of divers* 

As early as 1579 an English gunner named William 
Bourne patented a submarine boat of his own inven- 
tion fitted with leather joints, so contrived as to be 
made smaller or larger by the action of screws, 
ballasted with water, and having an air-pipe as mast. 
The Campbell-Ash submarine tried in 1885 was on 
much the same principle. 

Cornehus van Drebbel, an ingenious Dutchman who 
settled in England before 1600, produced certain sub- 
mersible vessels and obtained for them the patronage 
of two kings. He claims to have discovered a means 
of re-oxygenating the foul air and so enabling his 
craft to remain a long time below water ; whether 

144 




The ''Hollajid" Submarine Boat 



[To face -p. 144. 



Submarine Boats 

this was done by chemical treatment, compressed air, 
or by surface tubes no record remains. Drebbel's 
success was such that he was allowed to experiment 
in the Thames, and James I, accompanied him on one 
of his sub-aquatic journeys. In 1626 Charles I. gave 
him an order to make *^ boates to go under water," as 
well as " water mines, water petards," &c., presumably 
for the campaign against France, but we do not hear 
of these weapons of destruction being actually used 
upon this occasion. 

These early craft seem to have been generally 
moved by oars working in air-tight leather sockets ; 
but one constructed at Rotterdam about 1654 was 
furnished with a paddle-wheel. 

Coming now nearer to our own times, we find that 
an American called Bushnell had a like inspiration in 
1773, when he invented his famous '^ Turtles," small, 
upright boats in which one man could sit, submerge 
himself by means of leather bottles with the mouths 
projecting outside, propel himself with a small set of 
oars and steer with an elementary rudder. An un- 
successful attempt was made to blow up the English 
fleet with one of these " Turtles " carrying a torpedo, 
but the current proved too strong, and the missile 
exploded at a harmless distance, the operator being 
finally rescued from an unpremeditated sea -trip I 
Bushnell was the author of the removable safety-keel 
now uniformly adopted. 

Soon afterwards another New Englander took up 
the running, Fulton — one of the cleverest and least 

145 K 



Romance of Modern Invention 

appreciated engineers of the early years of the nine- 
teenth century. His Nautilus^ built in the French 
dockyards, was in many respects the pattern for our 
own modern submarines. The cigar-shaped copper 
hull, supported by iron ribs, was twenty-four feet four 
inches long, with a greatest diameter of seven feet. 
Propulsion came from a wheel, rotated by a hand 
winch, in the centre of the stern ; forward was a 
small conning-tower, and the boat was steered by a 
rudder. There was a detachable keel below ; and 
fitted into groves on the top were a collapsible mast 
and sail for use on the surface of the water. An 
anchor was also carried externally. In spite of the 
imperfect materials at his disposal Fulton had much 
success. At Brest he took a crew of three men 
twenty-five feet down, and on another day blew up 
an old hulk. In the Seine two men went down for 
twenty minutes and steered back to their starting- 
point under water. He also put in air at high pres- 
sure and remained submerged for hours. But France, 
England, and his own country in turn rejected his 
invention ; and, completely discouraged, he bent his 
energies to designing boat engines instead. 

In 1 82 1 Captain Johnson, also an American, made 
a submersible vessel 100 feet long, designed to fetch 
Napoleon from St. Helena, travelling for the most 
part upon the surface. This expedition never came 
off. 

Two later inventions, by Castera and Payerne, in 
1827 and 1846 respectively, were intended for more 

146 



Submarine Boats 

peaceful objects. Being furnished with diving-cham- 
bers, the occupants could retrieve things from the 
bottom of the sea ; Castera providing his boat with 
an air-tube to the surface. 

Bauer, another inventor, lived for some years in 
England under the patronage of Prince Albert, who 
supplied him with funds for his experiments. With 
Brunei's help he built a vessel which was indiscreetly 
modified by the naval authorities, and finally sank and 
drowned its crew. Going then to Russia he con- 
structed sundry submarines for the navy ; but was in 
the end thrown over, and, like Fulton, had to turn 
himself to other employment. 

The fact is that up to this period the cry for a 
practical submarine to use in warfare had not yet 
arisen, or these inventions would have met with a far 
different reception. Within the last half century all 
has changed. America and France now rival each 
other in construction, while the other nations of 
Europe look on with intelligent interest, and in turn 
make their contributions towards solving the problem 
of under-wave propulsion. 

America led the way during the Civil War blockades 
in 1864, when the Housatonic vj2iS sunk in Charleston 
harbour, and damage done to other ships. But these 
experimental torpedo-boats were clumsy contrivances 
compared with their modern successors, for they 
could only carry their destructive weapon at the end 
of a spar projecting from the bows — to be exploded 
upon contact with the obstacle, and probably involve 

147 



Romance of Modern Invention 

the aggressor in a common ruin. So nothing more 
was done till the perfecting of the Whitehead torpedo 
(see Dirigible Torpedoes) gave the required impetus to 
fresh enterprise. 

France, experimenting in the same direction, pro- 
duced in 1889 Goubet's submarine, patent of a private 
inventor, who has also been patronised by other navies. 
These are very small boats, the first, 16J feet long, 
carrying a crew of two or three men. Goubet No, 2, 
built in 1899, is 26 J feet long, composed of several 
layers of gun-metal united by strong screw-bolts, and 
so able to resist very great pressure. They are Qgg- 
or spindle-shaped, supplied with compressed air, able 
to sink and rise by rearrangement of water - ballast. 
Reservoirs in the hull are gradually filled for sub- 
mersion with water, which is easily expelled when it 
is desired to rise again. If this system goes wrong a 
false keel of thirty-six hundredweight can be detached 
and the boat springs up to the surface. The pro- 
pulsive force is electricity, which works the driving- 
screw at the rear, and the automobile torpedo is 
discharged from its tube by compressed air. 

" By the aid of an optical tube, which a pneumatic 
telescopic apparatus enables the operator to thrust 
above the surface and pull down in a moment, the 
captain of the Goubet can, when near the surface, see 
what is going on all round him. This telescope has 
a system of prisms and lenses which cause the image 
of the sea-surface to be deflected down to the eye of 
the observer below. 

148 



Submarine Boats 

" Fresh air for the crew is provided by reservoirs of 
oxygen, and accumulations of foul air can be expelled 
by means of a small pump. Enough fresh air can be 
compressed into the reservoirs to last the crew for a 
week or more/' 

The Gymnote^ laid down in 1898, is more than 
double the size of the Goubet ; it is cigar-shaped, 
29 feet long by 6 feet diameter, with a displacement 
of thirty tons. The motive power is also electricity 
stored in accumulators for use during submersion, 
and the speed expected— but not realised — was to 
be ten knots. 

Five years later this type was improved upon in the 
Gustave Zede^ the largest submarine ever yet designed. 
This boat, built of phosphor-bronze, with a single 
screw, measures 131 feet in length and has a displace- 
ment of 266 tons ; she can contain a crew of nine 
officers and men, carries three torpedoes — though 
with one torpedo tube instead of two — has a lightly 
armoured conning- tower, and is said to give a surface 
speed of thirteen knots and to make eight knots when 
submerged. At a trial of her powers made in the pre- 
sence of M. Lockroy, Minister of Marine, she affixed 
an unloaded torpedo to the battleship Magenta and 
got away unobserved. The whole performance of the 
boat on that occasion was declared to be most suc- 
cessful. But its cost proved excessive considering 
the small radius of action obtainable, and a smaller 
vessel of the same type, the Morse (118x9 feet), is 
now the official size for that particular class. 

149 



Romance of Modern Invention 

In 1896 a competition was held and won by the 
submersible Narval of M. Laubeuf, a craft shaped 
much like the ordinary torpedo-boat. On the surface 
or awash the Narval works by means of a Brul6 
engine burning oil fuel to heat its boilers ; but when 
submerged for attack with funnel shut down is driven 
by electric accumulators. She displaces 100 odd tons 
and is provided with four Dzewiecki torpedo tubes. 
Her radius of action, steaming awash, is calculated 
at some 250 miles, or seventy miles when proceeding 
under water at five knots an hour. This is the parent 
of another class of boats designed for offensive tactics, 
while the Morse type is adapted chiefly for coast and 
harbour defence. The French navy includes altogether 
thirty submarine craft, though several of these are 
only projected at present, and none have yet been put 
to the practical tests of actual warfare — the torpedoes 
used in experimenting being, of course, blank. 

Meanwhile in America experiments have also been 
proceeding since 1887, when Mr. Holland of New 
York produced the vessel that bears his name. This, 
considerably modified, has now been adopted as model 
by our Navy Department, which is building some half- 
dozen on very similar lines. Though it is not easy to 
get any definite particulars concerning French sub- 
marines Americans are less reticent, and we have 
graphic accounts of the Holland and her offspring 
from those who have visited her. 

These vessels, though cigar-shaped liked most others, 
in some respects resemble the Narval^ being intended 

150 




An interior view of tlic ' 
actuates mechanism 
below the surface. 



' Holland." The large pendulu-m on the right 
to keep the Submarine at the required depth 

[To face p. 150. 



Submarine Boats 

for long runs on the surface, when they burn oil in a 
four - cylinder gasolene engine of i6o horse -power. 
Under water they are propelled by an electric water- 
proof motor of seventy horse-power, and proceed at 
a pace of seven knots per hour. There is a super- 
structure for deck, with a funnel for the engine and 
a small conning-tower protected by 4-inch armour. 
The armament carried comprises five 18-inch White- 
head torpedoes, II feet 8 inches long. One hundred 
and twenty tons is the displacement, including tank 
capacity for 850 gallons of gasolene ; the full length 
is 63 feet 4 inches, with a beam of 11 feet 9 inches. 

The original Holland boat is thus described by an 
adventurous correspondent who took a trip in her ^ : 
" The Holland is fifty-three feet long, and in its widest 
part it is loj feet in diameter. It has a displacement 
of seventy -four tons, and what is called a reserve 
buoyancy of 2J tons which tends to make it come to 
the surface. 

" The frames of the boat are exact circles of steel. 
They are set a little more than a foot apart. They 
diminish gradually in diameter from the centre of the 
boat to the bow and stern. On the top of the boat a 
flat superstructure is built to afford a walking plat- 
form, and under this are spaces for exhaust pipes and 
for the external outfit of the boat, such as ropes and 
a small anchor. The steel plates which cover the 
frame are from one-half to three-eighths of an inch 
in thickness. 

^ Pearson^ s Magazine. 



Romance of Modern Invention 

" From what may be called the centre of the boat 
a turret extends upwards through the superstructure 
for about eighteen inches. It is two feet in diameter, 
and is the only means of entrance to the boat. It 
is the place from which the boat is operated. At 
the stern is an ordinary three-bladed propeller and 
an ordinary rudder, and in addition there are two 
horizontal rudders — '' diving-rudders " they are called 
—which look like the feet of a duck spread out 
behind as it swims along the water. 

" From the bow two-thirds of the way to the stern 
there is a flooring, beneath which are the storage 
batteries, the tank for the gasolene, and the tanks 
which are filled with water for submerging ; in the 
last one-third of the boat the flooring drops away, and 
the space is occupied by the propelling machinery. 

'* There are about a dozen openings in the boat, 
the chief being three Kingston valves, by means of 
which the submerging tanks are filled or emptied. 
Others admit water to pressure gauges, which regu- 
late or show the depth of the vessel under water. 
There are twelve deadlights in the top and sides of 
the craft. To remain under water the boat must be 
kept in motion, unless an anchor is used. 

" It can be steered to the surface by the diving 
rudders, or sent flying to the top through emptying 
the storage tanks. If it strikes bottom, or gets stuck 
in the mud, it can blow itself loose by means of its 
compressed air. It cannot be sunk unless pierced 
above the flooring. It has a speed capacity of from 

152 



Submarine Boats 

eight to ten knots either on the surface or under 
water. 

^'It can go 1500 miles on the surface without re- 
newing its supply of gasolene. It can go fully forty 
knots under water without coining to the surface, 
and there is enough compressed air in the tanks to 
supply a crew with fresh air for thirty hours, if the 
air is not used for any other purpose, such as empty- 
ing Jthe submerging tanks. It can dive to a depth 
of twenty feet in eight seconds. 

"The interior is simply packed with machinery. 
As you climb down the turret you are confronted 
with it at once. There is a diminutive compass which 
must be avoided carefully by the feet. A pressure 
gauge is directly in front of the operator's eye as 
he stands in position. There are speaking-tubes to 
various parts of the boat, and a signal-bell to the 
engine-room. 

"As the operator's hands hang by his sides, he 
touches a wheel on the port side, by turning which he 
steers the little vessel, and one on the starboard side, 
by turning which he controls the diving machinery. 
After the top is clamped down the operator can look 
out through plate-glass windows, about one inch wide 
and three inches long, which encircle the turret. 

"So long as the boat is running on the surface 
these are valuable, giving a complete view of the sur- 
roundings if the water is smooth. After the boat 
goes beneath the surface, these windows are useless ; 
it is impossible to see through the water. Steering 

153 



Romance of Modern Invention 

must be done by compass ; until recently considered 
an impossible task in a submarine boat. A tiny 
electric light in the turret shows the operator the 
direction in which he is going, and reveals the mark- 
ings on the depth gauges. If the boat should pass 
under an object, such as a ship, a perceptible shadow 
would be noticed through the deadlights, but that 
is all. The ability to see fishes swimming about in 
the water is a pleasant fiction. 

*^ The only clear space in the body of the boat is 
directly in front of the bench on which the man in 
the turret is standing. It is where the eighteen-inch 
torpedo-tube, and the eight and five-eighths inch aerial 
gun are loaded. 

"Along the sides of this open space are six com- 
pressed-air tanks, containing thirty cubic feet of air 
at a pressure of 2000 lbs. to a square inch. Near 
by is a smaller tank, containing three cubic feet of 
air at a fifty pounds pressure. A still smaller tank 
contains two cubic feet of air at a ten pounds pressure. 
These smaller tanks supply the compressed air which, 
with the smokeless powder, is used in discharging 
the projectiles from the boat. 

"Directly behind the turret, up against the roof 
on the port side, is the little engine by which the 
vessel is steered ; it is worked by compressed air. 
Fastened to the roof on the starboard side is the 
diving-engine, with discs that look as large as dinner- 
plates stood on end. These discs are diaphragms on 
which the water-pressure exerts an influence, counter- 

154 



Submarine Boats 

acting certain springs which are set to keep the diving 
rudders at a given pitch, and thus insuring an immer- 
sion of an exact depth during a run. 

"At one side is a cubic steel box — the air com- 
pressor J and directly in the centre of this part of 
the boat is a long pendulum, just as there is in the 
ordinary torpedo, which, by swinging backwards and 
forwards as the boat dives and rises, checks a ten- 
dency to go too far down, or to come up at too 
sharp an angle. On the floor are the levers which, 
when raised and moved in certain directions, fill or 
empty the submerging tanks. On every hand are 
valves and wheels and pipes in such apparent con- 
fusion as to turn a layman's head. 

<^ There are also pumps in the boat, a ventilating 
apparatus, and a sounding contrivance, by means of 
which the channel is picked out when running under 
water. This sounding contrivance consists of a heavy 
weight attached to a piano wire passing from a reel 
out through a stuffing-box in the bottom. There 
are also valves which release fresh air to the crew, 
although in ordinary runs of from one-half to one 
hour this is not necessary, the fresh air received from 
the various exhausts in the boat being sufficient to 
supply all necessities in that length of time." 

Another submersible of somewhat different design 
is the production of the Swedish inventor, Mr. Nor- 
denfelt. This boat is 9J metres in length, and has a 
displacement of sixty tons. Like the Goubet it sinks 
only in a horizontal position, while the Holland 

155 



Romance of Modern Invention 

plunges downward at a slight angle. On the surface 
a steam-engine of loo horse-power propels it, and 
when the funnel is closed down and the vessel sub- 
merges itself, the screws are still driven by super- 
heated steam from the large reservoir of water boiling 
at high pressure which maintains a constant supply, 
three circulation pumps keeping this in touch with the 
boiler. The plunge is accomplished by means of two 
protected screws, and when they cease to move the 
reserve buoyancy of the boat brings it back to the 
surface. It is steered by a rudder which a pendulum 
regulates. The most modern of these boats is of 
English manufacture, built at Barrow, and tried in 
Southampton Water. 

The vessels hitherto described should be termed 
submersible rather than submarine, as they are de- 
signed to usually proceed on the surface, and sub- 
merge themselves only for action when in sight of 
the enemy. 

American ingenuity has produced an absolutely 
unique craft to which the name submarine may with 
real appropriateness be applied, for, sinking in water 
100 feet deep, it can remain below and run upon three 
wheels along the bottom of the sea. This is the 
Argonaut^ invented by Mr. Simon Lake of Baltimore, 
and its main portion consists of a steel framework of 
cylindrical form which is surmounted by a flat, hollow 
steel deck. During submersion the deck is filled with 
water and thus saved from being crushed by outside 
pressure as well as helping to sink the craft. 

156 



Submarine Boats 

When moving on the surface it has the appearance 
of an ordinary ship, with its two Hght masts, a small 
conning-tower on which is the steering-wheel, bow- 
sprit, ventilators, a derrick, suction-pump, and two 
anchors. A gasolene engine of special design is used 
for both surface and submerged cruising under ordi- 
nary circumstances, but in time of war storage batteries 
are available. An electric dynamo supplies light to 
the whole interior, including a 4000 candle-power 
searchlight in the extreme bow which illuminates 
the pathway while under water. 

On the boat being stopped and the order given 
to submerge, the crew first throw out sounding 
lines to make sure of the depth. They then close 
down external openings, and retreat into the boat 
through the conning-tower, within which the helms- 
man takes his stand, continuing to steer as easily as 
when outside. The valves which fill the deck and 
submersion tanks are opened, and the Argonaut drops 
gently to the floor of the ocean. The two apparent 
masts are in reality 3-inch iron pipes which rise thirty 
feet or more above the deck, and so long as no greater 
depth is attained, they supply the occupants with fresh 
air and let exhausted gases escape, but close automa- 
tically when the water reaches their top. 

Once upon the bottom of the sea this versatile 
submarine begins its journey as a tricycle. It is 
furnished with a driving-wheel on either side, each of 
which is 6J feet in diameter and weighs 5000 lbs. ; 
and is guided by a third wheel weighing 2000 lbs. 

157 



Romance of Modern Invention 

journalled in the rudder. On a hard bottom or against 
a strong tide the wheels are most effective owing to 
their weight, but in passing through soft sand or mud 
the screw propeller pushes the boat along, the driving- 
wheels running " loose." In this way she can travel 
through even waist-deep mud, the screw working more 
strongly than on the surface, because it has such a 
weight of water to help it, and she moves more easily 
uphill. 

In construction the Argonaut is shaped something 
like a huge cigar, her strong steel frames, spaced twenty 
inches apart, being clad with steel plates f-inch thick 
double riveted over them. Great strength is neces- 
sary to resist the pressure of superincumbent water, 
which at a depth of loo feet amounts to 44 lbs. per 
square inch. 

Originally she was built 36 feet long, but was subse- 
quently lengthened by some 20 odd feet, and has 9 
feet beam. She weighs fifty-seven tons when sub- 
merged. A false section of keel, 4000 lbs. in weight, 
can on emergency be instantly released from inside ; 
and two downhaul weights, each of 1000 lbs., are 
used as an extra precaution for safety when sinking 
in deep water. 

The interior is divided into various compartments, 
the living quarters consisting of the cabin, galley, 
operating chamber and engine-room. There are also 
a division containing stores and telephone, the in- 
termediate, and the divers' room. The '^operating" 
room contains the levers, handwheels, and other 

158 



Submarine Boats 

mechanism by which the boat's movements are 
governed. A water gauge shows her exact depth 
below the surface; a dial on either side indicates 
any inclination from the horizontal Certain levers 
open the valves which admit water to the ballast- 
tanks in the hold ; another releases the false keel ; 
there is a cyclometer to register the wheel travelling, 
and other gauges mark the pressure of steam, speed of 
engines, &c. 

A compass in the conning-tower enables the navi- 
gator to steer a true course whether above or below 
the surface. This conning-tower, only six feet high, 
rises above the centre of the living quarters, and is 
of steel with small windows in the upper part. En- 
circling it to about three-quarters of its height is a 
reservoir for gasolene, which feeds into a smaller tank 
within the boat for consumption. The compressed 
air is stored in two Mannesmann steel reservoirs which 
have been tested to a pressure of 4000 lbs. per square 
inch. This renews the air-supply for the crew when 
the Argonaut is long below, and also enables the 
diving operations to be carried on. 

The maximum speed at which the Argonaut travels 
submerged is five knots an hour, and when she has 
arrived at her destination — say a sunken coal steamer 
— the working party pass into the ^^intermediate" 
chamber, whose air-tight doors are then closed. A 
current of compressed air is then turned on until the 
air is equal in pressure to that in the divers' room. 
The doors of this close over indiarubber to be air and 

159 



Romance of Modern Invention 

water-tight; one communicates with the ** intermedi- 
ate," the other is a trap which opens downwards into 
the sea. Through three windows in the prow those 
remaining in the room can watch operations outside 
within a radius varying according to the clearness of 
the water. The divers assume their suits, to the 
helmets of which a telephone is attached, so arranged 
that they are able to talk to each other as well as to 
those in the boat. They are also provided with elec- 
tric lamps, and a brilliant flood of light streams upon 
them from the bows of the vessel. The derrick can 
be used with ease under water, and the powerful 
suction-pump will " retrieve " coal from a submerged 
vessel into a barge above at the rate of sixty tons per 
hour. 

It will thus be seen how valuable a boat of this kind 
may be for salvage operations, as well as for surveying 
the bottom of harbours, river mouths, sea coasts, and 
so on. In war time it can lay or examine submarine 
mines for harbour defence, or, if employed offensively, 
can enter the enemy's harbour with no chance of 
detection, and there destroy his mines or blow up his 
ships with perfect impunity. 

To return the Argonaut to the surface it is only 
necessary to force compressed air into the space 
below the deck and the four tanks in the hold. Her 
buoyancy being thus gradually restored she rises 
slowly and steadily till she is again afloat upon the 
water, and steams for land. 

We have now glanced briefly at some of the most 
i6o 




4:1 



m 





The ''Holland" Submarine in tlie last stages of 
submersion. 

\To face p. i6o. 



Submarine Boats 

interesting attempts — out of many dozens — to produce 
a practicable submarine vessel in bygone days ; and 
have inquired more closely into the construction of 
several modern designs ; among these the Holland 
has received especial attention, as that is the model 
adopted by our Admiralty, and our own new boats 
only differ in detail from their American prototype. 
But before quitting this subject it will be well to con- 
sider what is required from the navigating engineer, 
and how far present invention has supplied the de- 
mand. 

The perfect submarine of fiction was introduced by 
Jules Verne, whose Nautilus remains a masterpiece of 
scientific imagination. This marvellous vessel ploughed 
the seas with equal power and safety, whether on the 
surface or deeply sunk beneath the waves, bearing the 
pressure of many atmospheres. It would rest upon 
the ocean floor while its inmates, clad in diving suits, 
issued forth to stroll amid aquatic forests and scale 
marine mountains. It gathered fabulous treasures 
from pearl beds and sunken galleons ; and could ram 
and sink an offending ship a thousand times its size 
without dinting or loosening a plate on its own hull. 
No weather deflected its compass, no movement dis- 
turbed its equilibrium. Its crew followed peacefully 
and cheerfully in their spacious cabins a daily round 
of duties which electric power and automatic gear 
reduced to a minimum. Save for the misadventure 
of a shortened air-supply when exploring the Polar 
pack, and the clash of human passions, Captain 

i6i L 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Nemo's guests would have voyaged in a floating 
paradise. 

Compare with this entrancing creation the most 
practical vessels of actual experiment. They are 
small, blind craft, groping their way perilously when 
below the surface, the steel and electrical machinery 
sadly interfering with any trustworthy working of 
their compass, and the best form of periscope hitherto 
introduced forming a very imperfect substitute for 
ordinary vision. 

Their speed, never very fast upon the surface, is 
reduced by submersion to that of the oldest and 
slowest gunboats. Their radius of action is also 
circumscribed — that is, they cannot carry supplies 
sufficient to go a long distance, deal with a hostile 
fleet, and then return to headquarters without re- 
plenishment. 

Furthermore, there arise the nice questions of 
buoyancy combined with stability when afloat, of 
sinking quickly out of sight, and of keeping a correct 
balance under water. The equilibrium of such small 
vessels navigating between the surface and the bottom 
is extremely sensitive ; even the movements to and 
fro of the crew are enough to imperil them. To 
meet this difficulty the big water - ballast tanks, 
engines and accumulators are necessarily arranged 
at the bottom of the hull, and a pendulum working 
a helm automatically is introduced to keep it longi- 
tudinally stable. 

To sink the boat, which is done by changing the 
162 



Submarine Boats 

angle of the propeller in the Goubet and some others, 
and by means of horizontal rudders and vanes in the 
Nordenfelt and Holland^ it must first be most accu- 
rately balanced, bow and stern exactly in trim. Then 
the boat must be put into precise equilibrium with the 
water — i.e, must weigh just the amount of water dis- 
placed. For this its specific gravity must be nearly 
the same as that of the water (whether salt or fresh), 
and a small accident might upset all calculations. 
Collision, even with a large fish, could destroy the 
steering-gear, and a dent in the side would also tend 
to plunge it at once to destruction. 

Did it escape these dangers and succeed in steering 
an accurate course to its goal, we have up to now 
little practical proof that the mere act of discharging 
its torpedo — though the weight of the missile is in- 
tended to be automatically replaced immediately it 
drops from the tube — may not suffice to send the 
vessel either to bottom or top of the sea. In the 
latter case it would be within the danger zone of its 
alarmed enemy and at his mercy, its slow speed (even 
if uninjured) leaving it little chance of successful 
flight. 

But^wliatever the final result, one thing is certain, 
that — untried as it is — the possible contingency of a 
submarine attack is likely to shake the morale of an 
aggressive fleet 

" When the first submarine torpedo-boat goes into 
action," says Mr. Holland, " she will bring us face to 
face with the most perplexing problem ever met in 

163 



Romance of Modern Invention 

warfare. She will present the unique spectacle, 
when used in attack, of a weapon against which 
there is no defence. . . . You can send nothing 
against the submarine boat, not even itself. . . . 
You cannot see under water, hence you cannot 
fight under water. Hence you cannot defend your- 
self against an attack under water except by running 
away." 

This inventor is, however, an enthusiast about the 
future awaiting the submarine as a social factor. His 
boat has been tested by long voyages on and below 
water with complete success. The Argonaut also 
upon one occasion travelled a thousand miles with 
five persons, and proved herself "habitable, sea- 
worthy, and under perfect control." 

Mr. Holland confidently anticipates in the near 
future a Channel service of submerged boats run by 
automatic steering-gear upon cables stretched from 
coast to coast, and eloquently sums up its advan- 
tages. 

The passage would be always practicable, for ordi- 
nary interruptions such as fog and storms cannot 
affect the sea depths. 

An even temperature would prevail summer and 
winter, the well-warmed and lighted boats being also 
free from smoke and spray. 

No nauseating smells would proceed from the 
evenly-working electric engines. No motion cause 
sea-sickness, no collision be apprehended — as each 
line would run on its own cable, and at its own 

164 



Submarine Boats 

specified depth, a telephone keeping it in communi- 
cation with shore. 

In Hke manner a service might be plied over 
lake bottoms, or across the bed of wide rivers 
whose surface is bound in ice. Such is the sub- 
marine boat as hitherto conceived for peace or 
war — a daring project for the coming generation to 
justify. 



165 



ANIMATED PICTURES. 

Has it ever occurred to the reader to ask himself why 
rain-appears to fall in streaks though it arrives at earth 
in drops ? Or why the glowing end of a charred 
stick produces fiery lines if waved about in the dark- 
ness ? Common sense tells us the drop and the 
burning point cannot be in two places at one and the 
same time. And yet apparently we are able to see 
both in many positions simultaneously. 

This seeming paradox is due to *^ persistence of 
vision/' a phenomenon that has attracted the notice 
of scientific men for many centuries. Persistence 
may be briefly explained thus : — 

The eye is extremely sensitive to light, and will, as 
is proved by the visibility of the electric spark, lasting 
for less than the millionth part of a second, receive 
impressions with marvellous rapidity. 

But it cannot get rid of these impressions at the 
same speed. The duration of a visual impression has 
been calculated as one-tenth to one-twenty-first of a 
second. The electric spark, therefore, appears to last 
much longer than it really does. 

Hence it is obvious that if a series of impressions 
follow one another more rapidly than the eye can free 

1 66 



Animated Pictures 

itself of them, the impressions will overlap, and one of 
four results will follow. 

{a) Apparently uninterrupted presence of an image if 
the same image be repeatedly represented. 

(b) Confusion^ if the images be all different and 
disconnected. 

{c) Combination^ if the images of two or a very few 
objects be presented in regular rotation, 

(d) Motion^ if the objects be similar in all but one 
part, which occupies a slightly different portion in 
each presentation. 

In connection with {c) an interesting story is told of 
Sir J. Herschel by Charles Babbage : — ^ 

"One day Herschel, sitting with me after dinner, 
amusing himself by spinning a pear upon the table, 
suddenly asked whether I could show him the two 
sides of a shilHng at the same moment. I took out 
of my pocket a shilling, and holding it up before the 
looking-glass, pointed out my method. ^ No,' said my 
friend, ' that won't do ; ' then spinning my shilling 
upon the table, he pointed out his method of seeing 
both sides at once. The next day I mentioned the 
anecdote to the late Dr. Fitton, who a few days after 
brought me a beautiful illustration of the principle. 
It consisted of a round disc of card suspended be- 
tween two pieces of sewing silk. These threads being 
held between the finger and thumb of each hand, were 

^ Quoted from Mr. Henry V. Hop wood's " Living Pictures," to 
which book the author is indebted for much of his information in this 
chapter. 

167 



Romance of Modern Invention 

then made to turn quickly, when the disc of card, of 
course, revolved also. Upon one side of this disc of 
card was painted a bird, upon the other side an empty 
bird-cage. On turning the thread rapidly the bird 
appeared to have got inside the cage. We soon made 
numerous applications, as a rat on one side and a 
trap on the other, &c. It was shown to Captain 
Kater, Dr. Wollaston, and many of our friends, and 
was, after the lapse of a short time, forgotten. Some 
months after, during dinner at the Royal Society 
Club, Sir Joseph Banks being in the chair, I heard 
Mr. Barrow, then secretary to the Admiralty, talking 
very loudly about a wonderful invention of Dr. Paris, 
the object of which I could not quite understand. It 
was called the Thaumatrope, and was said to be sold at 
the Royal Institution, in Albemarle Street. Suspect- 
ing that it had some connection with our unnamed 
toy I went next morning and purchased for seven 
shillings and sixpence a thaumatrope, which I after- 
wards sent down to Slough to the late Lady Herschel. 
It was precisely the thing which her son and Dr. 
Fitton had contributed to invent, which amused all 
their friends for a time, and had then been for- 
gotten." 

The thaumatrope^ then, did nothing more than 
illustrate the power of the eye to weld together a 
couple of alternating impressions. The toys to which 
we shall next pass represent the same principle work- 
ing in a different direction towards the production of 
the living picture. 

i68 



Animated Pictures 

Now, when we see a man running (to take an 
instance) we see the same body and the same legs 
continuously, but in different positions, which merge 
insensibly the one into the other. No method of 
reproducing that impression of motion is possible if 
only one drawing, diagram, or photograph be em- 
ployed. 

A man represented with as many legs as a centipede 
would not give us any impression of running or 
movement ; and a blur showing the positions taken 
successively by his legs would be equally futile. 
Therefore we are driven back to a series of pictures, 
slightly different from one another ; and in order that 
the pictures may not be blurred a screen must be 
interposed before the eye while the change from 
picture to picture is made. The shorter the period 
of change, and the greater the number of pictures 
presented to illustrate a single motion, the more 
realistic is the effect. These are the general prin- 
ciples v;hich have to be observed in all mechanism 
for the production of an illusory effect of motion. 
The persistence of vision has led to the invention of 
many optical toys, the names of which, in common 
with the names of most apparatus connected with the 
living picture, are remarkable for their length. Of 
these toys we will select three for special notice. 

In 1833 Plateau of Ghent invented the phenakisto- 
scope, ^Uhe thing that gives one a false impression 
of reality" — to interpret this formidable word. The 
phenakistoscope is a disc of card or metal round the 

169 



Romance of Modern Invention 

edge of which are drawn a succession of pictures 
showing a man or animal in progressive positions. 
Between every two pictures a narrow slit is cut. 
The disc is mounted on an axle and revolved 
before a mirror, so that a person looking through 
the slits see one picture after another reflected in 
the mirror. 

The zoetropCy or Wheel of Life, which appeared first 
in i860, is a modification of the same idea. In this 
instrument the pictures are arranged on the inner side 
of a hollow cylinder revolving on a vertical axis, its 
sides being perforated with slits above the pictures. 
As the slit in both cases caused distortion M. Rey- 
naud, a Frenchman, produced in 1877 \h^ praxinoscope^ 
which differed from the zoetrope in that the pictures 
were not seen directly through slits, but were reflected 
by mirrors set half-way between the pictures and the 
axis of the cylinder, a mirror for every picture. Only 
at the moment when the mirror is at right angles to 
the line of sight would the picture be visible. M, 
Reynaud also devised a special lantern for projecting 
praxinoscope pictures on to a screen. 

These and other somewhat similar contrivances, 
though ingenious, had very distinct limitations. They 
depended for their success upon the inventiveness 
and accuracy of the artist, who was confined in his 
choice of subject ; and could, owing to the con- 
struction of the apparatus, only represent a small 
series of actions, indefinitely repeated by the machine. 
And as a complete action had to be crowded into a 

170 



Animated Pictures 

few pictures, the changes of position were necessarily 
abrupt. 

To make the Hving picture a success two things 
were needed ; some method of securing a very rapid 
series of many pictures, and a machine for repro- 
ducing the series, whatever its length. The method 
was found in photography, with the advance of which 
the living picture's progress is so closely related, that 
it will be worth while to notice briefly the various 
improvements of photographic processes. The old- 
fashioned Daguerreotype process, discovered in 1839, 
required an exposure of half-an-hour. The intro- 
duction of wet collodion reduced this tax on a 
sitter's patience to ten seconds. In 1878 the dry 
plate process had still further shortened the exposure 
to one second ; and since that date the silver-salt 
emulsions used in photography have had their sensi- 
tiveness to light so much increased, that clear pictures 
can now be made in one-thousandth of a second, a 
period minute enough to arrest the most rapid move- 
ments of animals. 

By 1878, therefore, instantaneous photography was 
ready to aid the living picture. Previously to that 
year series of photographs had been taken from posed 
models, without however extending the choice of 
subjects to any great extent. But between 1870 and 
1880 two men, Marey and Muybridge, began work 
with the camera on the movements of horses. Marey 
endeavoured to produce a series of pictures round 
the edge of one plate with a single lens and repeated 

171 



Romance of Modern Invention 

exposures.^ Muybridge, on the other hand, used a 
series of cameras. He erected a long white back- 
ground parallel to which were stationed the cameras 
at equal distances. The shutters of the cameras were 
connected to threads laid across the interval between 
the background and the cameras in such a manner 
that a horse driven along the track snapped them 
at regular intervals, and brought about successive 
exposures. Muybridge's method was carried on 
by Anschutz, a German, who in 1899 brought out 
his electrical Tachyscope, or ^^ quick-seer." Having 
secured his negatives he printed off transparent 
positives on glass, and arranged these last round the 
circumference of a large- disc rotating in front of 
a screen, having in it a hole the size of the trans- 
parencies. As each picture came opposite the hole 
a Geissler tube was momentarily lit up behind it by 
electrical contact, giving a fleeting view of one phase 
of a horse's motion. 

The introduction of the ribbon film in or about 
1888 opened much greater possibilities to the livmg 
picture than would ever have existed had the glass 
plate been retained. It was now comparatively easy 
to take a long series of pictures ; and accordingly we 
find Messrs. Friese-Greene and Evans exhibiting in 
1890 a camera capable of securing three hundred 
exposures in half a minute, or ten per second. 

^ A very interesting article in the May, 1902, issue of Pearson^ s 
Magazine deals with the latest work of Professor Marey in the field of 
the photographic representation of the movements of men birds, and 
quadrupeds. 

172 



Animated Pictures 

The next apparatus to be specially mentioned is 
Edison's Kinetoscope, which he first exhibited in 
England in 1894, As early as 1887 Mr. Edison had 
tried to produce animated pictures in a manner analo- 
gous to the making of a sound-record on a phono- 
graph (see p. 56). He wrapped round a cylinder a 
sheet of sensitized celluloid which was covered, after 
numerous exposures, by a spiral line of tiny negatives. 
The positives made from these were illuminated in 
turn by flashes of electric light. This method was, 
however, entirely abandoned in the perfected kineto- 
scope, an instrument for viewing pictures the size of 
a postage stamp, carried on a continuously moving 
celluloid film between the eye of the observer and a 
small electric lamp. The pictures passed the point 
of inspection at the rate of forty-six per second (a 
rate hitherto never approached), and as each picture 
was properly centred a slit in a rapidly revolving 
shutter made it visible for a very small fraction of a 
second. Holes punched at regular intervals along 
each side of the film engaged with studs on a wheel, 
and insured a regular motion of the pictures. This 
principle of a perforated film has been used by nearly 
all subsequent manufacturers of animatographs. 

To secure forty-six negatives per second Edison 
invented a special exposure device. Each negative 
would have but one-forty-sixth of a second to itself, and 
that must include the time during which the fresh sur- 
face of film was being brought into position before the 
lens. He therefore introduced an intermittent gearing, 

173 



Romance of Modern Invention 

which jerked the film forwards forty-six times per 
second, but allowed it to remain stationary for nine- 
tenths of the period allotted to each picture. During 
the time of movement the lens was covered by the 
shutter. This principle of exposure has also been 
largely adopted by other inventors. By its means 
weak negatives are avoided, while pictures projected 
on to a screen gain greatly in brilliancy and 
steadiness. 

The capabilities of a long flexible film-band hav- 
ing been shown by Edison, he was not long with- 
out imitators. Phantoscopes, Bioscopes, Photo- 
scopes, and many other instruments followed in 
quick succession. In 1895 Messrs. Lumiere scored 
a great success with their Cinematograph, which 
they exhibited at Marseilles and Paris ; throw- 
ing the living picture as we now know it on to a 
screen for a large company to see. This camera- 
lantern opens the era of commercial animated- 
photography. The number of patents taken out 
since 1895 in connection with living-picture machines 
is sufficient proof that inventors have either found 
in this particular branch of photography a peculiar 
fascination, or have anticipated from it a substantial 
profit. 

A company known as the Mutoscope and Biograph 
Company has been formed for the sole object of 
working the manufacture and exhibition of the 
living picture on a great commercial scale. The 
present company is American, but there are sub- 

174 



Animated Pictures 

sidiary allied companies in many parts of the world, 
including the British Isles, France, Italy, Belgium, 
Germany, Austria, India, Australia, South Africa, 
The part that the company has played in the deve- 
lopment of animated photography will be easily un- 
derstood from the short account that follows. 

The company controls three machines, the Muto- 
graph, or camera for making negatives ; the Biograph, 
or lantern for throwing pictures on to the screen ; 
and the Mutoscope, a familiar apparatus in which 
the same pictures may be seen in a different fashion 
on the payment of a penny. 

Externally the Mutograph is remarkable for its 
size, which makes it a giant of its kind. The complete 
apparatus weighs, with its accumulators, several hun- 
dreds of pounds. It takes a very large picture, as 
animatograph pictures go — two by two-and-a-half 
inches, which, besides giving increased detail, re- 
quire less severe magnification than is usual with 
other films. The camera can make up Ho a hun- 
dred exposures per second, in which time twenty- 
two feet of film will have passed before the lens. 

The film is so heavy that were it arrested bodily 
during each exposure and then jerked forward again, 
it might be injured. The mechanism of the muto- 
graph, driven at regular speed by an electric motor, 
has been so arranged as to halt only that part of 
the film which is being exposed, the rest moving 
forward continuously. The exposed portion, together 
with the next surface, which has accumulated in a 

175 



Romance of Modern Invention 

loop behind it, is dragged on by two rollers that 
are in contact with the film during part only of 
their revolutions. Thus the jerky motion is confined 
to but a few inches of the film, and even at the 
highest speeds the camera is peculiarly free from 
vibration. 

An exposed mutograph film is wound for deve- 
lopment round a skeleton reel, three feet in diameter 
and seven long, which rotates in a shallow trough 
containing the developing solution. Development 
complete, the reel is lifted from its supports and 
suspended over a succession of other troughs for 
washing, fixing, and final washing. When dry the 
negative film is passed through a special printing 
frame in contact with another film, which receives 
the positive image for the biograph. The difficulty 
of handling such films will be appreciated to a certain 
extent even by those whose experience is confined 
to the snaky behaviour of a short Kodak reel during 
development. 

The Mutoscope Company's organisation is as perfect 
as its machinery. It has representatives in all parts 
of the world. Wherever stirring events are taking 
place, whether in peace or war, a mutograph operator 
will soon be on the spot with his heavy apparatus 
to secure pictures for world-wide exhibition. It need 
hardly be said that great obstacles, human and 
physical, have often to be overcome before a film 
can be exposed ; and considerable personal danger 
encountered. We read that an operator, despatched 

176 



Animated Pictures 

to Cuba during the Spanish-American War was left 
three days and nights without food or water to guard 
his precious instruments, the party that had landed 
him having suddenly put to sea on sighting a Spanish 
cruiser. Another is reported to have had a narrow 
escape from being captured at sea by the Spaniards 
after a hot chase. It is also on record that a muto- 
graph set up in Atlantic City to take a procession 
of fire-engines was charged and shattered by one of 
the engines ; that the operators were flung into the 
crowd : and that nevertheless the box containing the 
exposed films was uninjured, and on development 
yielded a very sensational series of pictures lasting 
to the moment of collision. 

The Mutoscope Company owns several thousand 
series of views, none probably more valuable than those 
of his Holiness the Pope, who graciously gave Mr. W. 
K. Dickson five special sittings, during which no less 
than 17,000 negatives were made, each one of great 
interest to millions of people throughout the world. 

The company spares neither time nor money in its 
endeavour to supply the public with what will prove 
acceptable. A year's output runs into a couple of 
hundred miles of film. As much as 700 feet is some- 
times expended on a single series, which may be worth 
anything up to ;£iooo. 

The energy displayed by the operators is often 
marvellous. To take instances. The Derby of 1898 
was run at 3.20 P.M. At ten o'clock the race was 
run again by Biograph on the great sheet at the 

177 M 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Palace Theatre. On the home-coming of Lord 
Kitchener from the Soudan Campaign, a series of 
photographs was taken at Dover in the afternoon 
and exhibited the same evening ! Or again, to con- 
sider a wider sphere of action, the Jubilee Procession 
of 1897 was watched in New York ten days after 
the event ; two days later in Chicago ; and in three 
more the films were attracting large audiences in 
San Francisco, 5000 miles from the actual scene of 
the procession ! 

One may easily weary of a series of single views 
passed slowly through a magic-lantern at a lecture 
or entertainment. But when the Biograph is flashing 
its records at lightning speed there is no cause for 
dulness. It is impossible to escape from the fas- 
cination of movement, A single photograph gives 
the impression of mere resemblance to the original ; 
but a series, each reinforcing the signification of the 
last, breathes life into the dead image, and deludes 
us into the belief that we see, not the representation 
of a thing, but the thing itself. The bill of fare pro- 
vided by the Biograph Company is varied enough to 
suit the most fastidious taste. Now it is the great 
Naval Review off Spithead, or President Faure 
shooting pheasants on his preserves near Paris. A 
moment's pause and then the magnificent Falls of 
Niagara foam across the sheet ; Maxim guns fire 
harmlessly ; panoramic scenes taken from loco- 
motives running at high velocity unfold themselves 
to the delighted spectators, who feel as if they really 

178 



Animated Pictures 

were speeding over open country, among towering 
rocks, or plunging into the darkness of a tunnel. 
Here is an express approaching with all the quiver 
and fuss of real motion, so faithfully rendered that 
it seems as if a catastrophe were imminent; when, 
snap ! we are transported a hundred miles to watch 
it glide into a station. The doors open, passengers 
step out and shake hands with friends, porters bustle 
about after luggage, doors are slammed again, the 
guard waves his flag, and the carriages move slowly 
out of the picture. Then our attention is switched 
away to the lo-inch disappearing gun, landing and 
firing at Sandy Hook. And next, as though to show 
that nothing is beneath the notice of the biograph, 
we are perhaps introduced to a family of small pigs 
feeding from a trough with porcine earnestness and 
want of manners. 

It must not be thought that the Living Picture 
caters for mere entertainment only. It serves some 
very practical and useful ends. By its aid the move- 
ments of machinery and the human muscles may be 
studied in detail, to aid a mechanical or medical educa- 
tion. It furnishes art schools with all the poses of a 
living model. Less serious pursuits, such as dancing, 
boxing, wrestling and all athletic sports and exercise, 
will find a use for it. As an advertising medium it 
stands unrivalled, and we shall owe it a deep debt of 
gratitude if it ultimately supplants the flaring posters 
that disfigure our towns and desecrate our landscapes. 
Not so long since, the directors of the Norddeutscher- 

179 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Lloyd Steamship Company hired the biograph at the 
Palace Theatre, London, to demonstrate to anybody 
who cared to witness a very interesting exhibition 
that their line of vessels should always be used for 
a journey between England and America. 

The Living Picture has even been impressed into 
the service of the British Empire to promote emigra- 
tion to the Colonies. Three years ago Mr. Freer 
exhibited at the Imperial Institute and in other places 
in England a series of films representing the 1897 
harvest in Manitoba. Would-be emigrants were able 
to satisfy themselves that the great Canadian plains 
were fruitful not only on paper. For could they 
not see with their own eyes the stately procession of 
automatic " binders " reaping, binding, and deliver- 
ing sheaves of wheat, and puffing engines threshing 
out the grain ready for market ? A far preferable 
method this to the bogus descriptions of land com- 
panies such as lured poor Chuzzlewit and Mark Tapley 
into the deadly swamps of ^' Eden." 

Again, what more calculated to recruit boys for our 
warships than the fine Polytechnic exhibition known 
as " Our Navy " ? What words, spoken or printed, 
could have the effect of a series of vivid scenes truth- 
fully rendered, of drills on board ship, the manning 
and firing of big guns, the limbering-up of smaller 
guns, the discharge of torpedoes, the headlong rush 
of the " destroyers " ? 

The Mutoscope, to which reference has been made 
above, may be found in most places of public enter- 

180 



Animated Pictures 

tainment, in refreshment bars, on piers, in exhibitions, 
on promenades. A penny dropped into a slot re- 
leases a handle, the turning of which brings a series 
of pictures under inspection. The pictures, enlarged 
from mutograph films, ^re mounted in consecutive 
order round a cylinder, 'standing out like the leaves 
of a book. When the cylinder is revolved by means 
of the handle the picture cards are snapped past the 
eye, giving an effect similar to the lifelike projections 
on a biograph screen. From 900 to 1000 pictures 
are mounted on a cylinder. 

The advantages of the mutoscope — its convenient 
size, its simplicity, and the ease with which its con- 
tents may be changed to illustrate the topics and 
events of the day — have made the animated photo- 
graph extremely popular. It does for vision what 
the phonograph does for sound. In a short time we 
shall doubtless be provided with handy machines 
combining the two functions and giving us double 
value for our penny. 

The real importance and value of animated photo- 
graphy will be more easily estimated a few years 
hence than to-day, when it is still more or less of a 
novelty. The multiplication of illustrated newspapers 
and magazines points to a general desire for pictorial 
matter to help down the daily, weekly, or monthly 
budget of nev/s, even if the illustrations be imagina- 
tive products of Fleet Street rather than faithful to 
fact. The reliable living picture (we except the " set- 
scene ") which " holds up a mirror to nature," will be 

181 



Romance of Modern Invention 

a companion rather than a rival of journalism, follow- 
ing hard on the description in print of an event that 
has taken place under the eye of the recording camera. 
The zest with which we have watched during the last 
two years biographic views of the embarkation and 
disembarkation of troops, of the transport of big guns 
through drifts and difficult country, and of the other 
circumstances of war, is largely due to the descrip- 
tions we have already read of the things that we see 
on the screen. And, on the other hand, the impres- 
sion left by a series of animated views will dwell in 
our memories long after the contents of the news- 
paper columns have become confused and jumbled. 
It is therefore especially to be hoped that photographic 
records will be kept of historic events, such as the 
Jubilee, the Queen's Funeral, King Edward's Corona- 
tion, so that future generations may, by the turning 
of a handle, be brought face to face with the great 
doings of a bygone age. 



182 



THE GREAT PARIS TELESCOPE 

A TELESCOPE SO powerful that it brings the moon 
apparently to within thirty-five miles of the earth ; so 
long that many a cricketer could not throw a ball 
from one end of it to the other ; so heavy that it 
would by itself make a respectable load for a goods 
train ; so expensive that astronomically - inclined 
millionaires might well hesitate to order a similar 
one for their private use. 

Such is the huge Paris telescope that in 1900 de- 
lighted thousands of visitors in the French Exposi- 
tion, where, among the many wonderful sights to be 
seen on all sides, it probably attracted more notice 
than any other exhibit. This triumph of scientific 
engineering and dogged perseverance in the face of 
great difficulties owes its being to a suggestion made 
in 1894 to a group of French astronomers by M. De- 
loncle. He proposed to bring astronomy to the front 
at the coming Exposition, and to effect this by build- 
ing a refracting telescope that in size and power 
should completely eclipse all existing instruments 
and add a new chapter to the ** story of the 
heavens." 

To the mind unversed in astronomy the telescope 
appeals by the magnitude of its dimensions, in the 

183 



Romance of Modern Invention 

same way as do the Forth Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, 
the Big Wheel, the statue of Liberty near New 
York harbour, the Pyramids, and most human-made 
" biggest on records." 

At the time of M. Deloncle's proposal the largest 
refracting telescope was the Yerkes' at William's Bay, 
Wisconsin, with an object-glass forty inches in dia- 
meter ; and next to it the 36-inch Lick instrument on 
Mount Hamilton, California, built by Messrs. Alvan 
Clark of Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. Among 
reflecting telescopes the prior place is still held by 
Lord Rosse's, set up on the lawn of Birr Castle half 
a century ago. Its speculum, or mirror, weighing 
three tons, lies at the lower end of a tube six feet 
across and sixty feet long. This huge reflector, being 
mounted in meridian, moves only in a vertical direc- 
tion. A refracting telescope is one of the ordinary 
pocket type, having an object-lens at one end and 
an eyepiece at the other. A reflector, on the other 
hand, has no object-lens, its place being taken by a 
mirror that gathers the rays entering the tube and 
reflects them back into the eyepiece, which is situated 
nearer the mouth end of the tube than the mirror 
itself. 

Each system has its peculiar disadvantages. In 
reflectors the image is more or less distorted by 
"spherical aberration." In refractors the image is 
approximately perfect in shape, but liable to "chro- 
matic aberration," a phenomenon especially notice- 
able in cheap telescopes and field-glasses, which 

184 



The Great Paris Telescope 

often show objects fringed with some of the colours 
of the spectrum. This defect arises from the different 
refrangibility of different hght rays. Thus, violet 
rays come to a focus at a shorter distance from the 
lens than red rays, and when one set is in focus to 
the eye the other must be out of focus. In carefully- 
made and expensive instruments compound lenses 
are used, which by the employment of different kinds 
of glass bring all the colours to practically the same 
focus, and so do away with chromatic aberration. 

To reduce colour troubles to a minimum M. Deloncle 
proposed that the object-lens should have a focal dis- 
tance of about two hundred feet, since a long focus 
is more easily corrected than a short one, and a 
diameter of over fifty-nine inches. The need for so 
huge a lens arises out of the optical principles of a 
refractor. The rays from an object — a star, for in- 
stance — strike the object-glass at the near end, and 
are bent by it into a converging beam, till they all 
meet at the focus. Behind the focus they again 
separate, and are caught by the eyepiece, which 
reduces them to a parallel beam small enough to 
enter the pupil. We thus see that though the un- 
aided eye gathers only the few rays that fall directly 
from the object on to the pupil, when helped by the 
telescope it receives the concentrated rays falling 
on the whole area of the object-glass ; and it would 
be sensible of a greatly increased brightness had not 
this light to be redistributed over the image, which 
is the object magnified by the eyepiece. Assuming 

185 



Romance of Modern Invention 

the aperture of the pupil to be one-tenth of an inch, 
and the object to be magnified a hundred times, the 
object-lens should have a hundred times the diameter 
of the pupil to render the image as bright as the 
object itself. If the lens be five instead of ten inches 
across, a great loss of light results, as in the high 
powers of a microscope, and the image loses in dis- 
tinctness what it gains in size. 

As M. Deloncle meant his telescope to beat all 
records in respect of magnification, he had no choice 
but to make a lens that should give proportionate 
illumination, and itself be of unprecedented size. 

At first M. Deloncle met with considerable opposi- 
tion and ridicule. Such a scheme as his was de- 
clared to be beyond accomplishment. But in spite 
of many prophecies of ultimate failure he set to 
work, entrusting the construction of the various por- 
tions of his colossal telescope to well-tried experts. 
To M. Gautier was given the task of making all the 
mechanical parts of the apparatus; to M. Mantois 
the casting of the giant lenses ; to M. Despret the 
casting of the huge mirror, to which reference will 
be made immediately. 

The first difficulty to be encountered arose from 
the sheer size of the instrument. It was evidently 
impossible to mount such a leviathan in the ordinary 
way. A tube, i8o feet long, could not be made rigid 
enough to move about and yet permit careful obser- 
vation of the stars. Even supposing that it were 
satisfactorily mounted on an ''equatorial foot" like 

i86 



The Great Paris Telescope 

smaller glasses, how could it be protected from wind 
and weather ? To cover it, a mighty dome, two 
hundred feet or more in diameter, would be required ; 
a dome exceeding by over seventy feet the cupola 
of St. Peter's, Rome ; and this dome must revolve 
easily on its base at a pace of about fifty feet an hour, 
so that the telescope might follow the motion of the 
heavenly bodies. 

The constructors therefore decided to abandon any 
idea of making a telescope that could be moved about 
and pointed in any desired direction. The alterna- 
tive course open to them was to fix the telescope 
itself rigidly in position, and to bring the stars within 
its field by means of a mirror mounted on a massive 
iron frame — the two together technically called a 
siderostat. The mirror and its support would be 
driven by clockwork at the proper sidereal rate. The 
siderostat principle had been employed as early as 
the eighteenth century, and perfected in recent years 
by Leon Foucault, so that in having recourse to it 
the builders of the telescope were not committing 
themselves to any untried device. 

In days when the handling of masses of iron, and 
the erection of huge metal constructions have become 
matters of everyday engineering life, no peculiar 
difficulty presented itself in connection with the 
metal-work of the telescope. The greatest possible 
care was of course observed in every particular. All 
joints and bearings were adjusted with an extra- 
ordinary accuracy; and all the cylindrical moving 

187 



Romance of Modern Invention 

parts of the siderostat verified till they did not vary 
from perfect cylindricity by so much as one twenty- 
five-thousandth of an inch ! 

The tube of the telescope, i8o feet long, consisted 
of twenty-four sections, fifty-nine inches in diameter, 
bolted together and supported on seven massive iron 
pillars. It weighed twenty-one tons. The siderostat, 
twenty-seven feet high, and as many in length, weighed 
forty-five tons. The lower portion, which was fixed 
firmly on a bed of concrete, had on the top a tank 
filled with quicksilver, in which the mirror and its 
frame floated. The quicksilver supported nine-tenths 
of the weight, the rest being taken by the levers used 
to move the mirror. Though the total weight of the 
mirror and frame was thirteen tons, the quicksilver 
offered so little resistance that a pull of a few pounds 
sufficed to rotate the entire mass. 

The real romance of the construction of this huge 
telescope centres on the making of the lenses and 
mirror. First-class lenses for all photographic and 
optical purposes command a very high price on 
account of the care and labour that has to be ex- 
pended on their production ; the value of the glass 
being trifling by comparison. Few, if any, trades 
require greater mechanical skill than that of lens- 
making ; the larger the lens the greater the difficul- 
ties it presents, first in the casting, then in the 
grinding, last of all in the polishing. The presence 
of a single air-bubble in the molten glass, the slightest 
irregularity of surface in the polishing may utterly 

i88 



The Great Paris Telescope 

destroy the value of a lens otherwise worth several 
thousands of pounds. 

The object-glass of the great telescope was cast by 
M. Mantois, famous as the manufacturer of large lenses. 
The glass used was boiled and reboiled many times to 
get rid of all bubbles. Then it was run into a mould 
and allowed to cool very gradually. A whole month 
elapsed before the breaking of a mould, when the 
lens often proved to be cracked on the surface, owing 
to the exterior having cooled faster than the interior 
and parted company with it. At last, however, a 
perfect cast resulted. 

M. Despret undertook the even more formidable 
task of casting the mirror at his works at Jeumont, 
North France. A special furnace and oven, capable 
of containing over fifteen tons of molten glass, had 
to be constructed. The mirror, 6J feet in diameter 
and eleven inches thick, absorbed 3f tons of liquid 
glass ; and so great was the difficulty of cooling it 
gradually, that out of the twenty casts eighteen were 
failures. 

The rough lenses and mirror having been ground 
to approximate correctness in the ordinary way, there 
arose the question of polishing, which is generally 
done by one of the most sensitive and perfect in- 
struments existing — the human hand. In this case, 
owing to the enormous size of the objects to be 
treated, hand work would not do. The mere hot 
touch of a workman would raise on the glass a tiny 
protuberance, which would be worn level wdth the 

189 



Romance of Modern Invention 

rest of the surface by the poUsher, and on the cooling 
of the part would leave a depression, only 1-75,000 
of an inch deep, perhaps, but sufficient to produce 
distortion, and require that the lens should be ground 
down again, and the whole surface polished afresh. 

M. Gautier therefore polished by machinery. It 
proved a very difficult process altogether, on account 
of frictional heating, the rise of temperature in the 
poHshing room, and the presence of dust. To insure 
success it was found necessary to warm all the polish- 
ing machinery, and to keep it at a fixed temperature. 

At the end of almost a year the polishing was finished, 
after the lenses and mirror had been subjected to the 
most searching tests, able to detect irregularities not 
exceeding 1-250,000 of an inch. M. Gautier applied to 
the mirror M. Foucault's test, which is worth mention- 
ing. A point of light thrown by the mirror is focused 
through a telescope. The eyepiece is then moved in- 
wards and outwards so as to throw the point out of 
focus. If the point becomes a luminous circle sur- 
rounded by concentric rings, the surface throwing the 
light point is perfectly plane or smooth. If, however, 
a pushing-in shows a vertical flattening of the point, 
and a puUing-out a horizontal flattening, that part is 
concave ; if the reverse happens, convexity is the cause. 

For the removal of the mirror from Jeumont to 
Paris a special train was engaged, and precautions 
were taken rivalling those by which travelling Royalty 
is guarded. The train ran at night without stopping, 
and at a constant pace, so that the vibration of the 

190 



The Great Paris Telescope 

glass atoms might not vary. On arriving at Paris, the 
mirror was transferred to a ponderous waggon, and 
escorted by a body of men to the Exposition build- 
ings. The huge object-lens received equally careful 
treatment. 

The telescope was housed at the Exhibition in a long 
gallery pointing due north and south, the siderostat at 
the north end. At the other, the eyepiece, end, a large 
amphitheatre accommodated the public assembled to 
watch the projection of stellar or lunar images on to 
a screen thirty feet high, while a lecturer explained 
what was visible from time to time. The images of 
the sun and moon as they appeared at the primary 
focus in the eyepiece measured from twenty-one to 
twenty-two inches in diameter, and the screen pro- 
jections were magnified from these about thirty times 
superficially. 

The eyepiece section consisted of a short tube, of 
the same breadth as the main tube, resting on four 
wheels that travelled along rails. Special gearing 
moved this truck-like construction backwards and 
forwards to bring a sharp focus into the eyepiece 
or on to a photographic plate. Focusing was thus 
easy enough when once the desired object came in 
view ; but the observer being unable to control the 
siderostat, 250 feet distant, had to telephone direc- 
tions to an assistant stationed near the mirror when- 
ever he wished to examine an object not in the field 
of vision. 

By the courtesy of the proprietors of the Strand 
191 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Magazine we are allowed to quote M. Deloncle's 
own words describing his emotions on his first view 
through the giant telescope : — 

'^ As is invariably the case, whenever an innovation 
that sets at nought old-established theories is brought 
forward, the prophecies of failure were many and 
loud, and I had more than a suspicion that my suc- 
cess would cause less satisfaction to others than 
to myself. Better than any one else I myself was 
cognisant of the unpropitious conditions in which 
my instrument had to work. The proximity of the 
river, the dust raised by hundreds of thousands of 
trampling feet, the trepidation of the soil, the working 
of the machinery, the changes of temperature, the 
glare from the thousands of electric lamps in close 
proximity — each of these circumstances, and many 
others of a more technical nature, which it would 
be tedious to enumerate, but which were no less 
important, would have been more than sufficient 
to make any astronomer despair of success even in 
observatories where all the surroundings are chosen 
with the utmost care. 

^Mn regions pure of calm and serene air large 
new instruments take months, more often years, to 
regulate properly. 

"In spite of everything, however, I still felt con- 
fident. Our calculations had been gone over again 
and again, and I could see nothing that in my opinion 
warranted the worst apprehensions of my kind critics. 

" It was with ill-restrained impatience that I waited 
192 



The Great Paris Telescope 

for the first night when the moon should show her- 
self in a suitable position for being observed ; but 
the night arrived in due course. 

'* Everything was in readiness. The movable por- 
tion of the roof of the building had been slid back, 
and the mirror of the siderostat stood bared to the 
sky. 

"In the dark, square chamber at the other end of 
the instrument, 200 feet away, into which the eye- 
piece of the instrument opened, I had taken my 
station with two or three friends. An attendant at 
the telephone stood waiting at my elbow to transmit 
my orders to his colleague in charge of the levers that 
regulated the siderostat and its mirror. 

^^The moon had risen now, and her silvery glory 
shone and sparkled in the mirror. 

" * A right declension,' I ordered. 

**The telephone bell rang in reply. 'Slowly, still 
slower ; now to the left — enough ; again a right de- 
clension — slower ; stop now — very, very slowly.' 

''On the ground-glass before our eyes the moon's 
image crept up from one corner until it had over- 
spread the glass completely. And there we stood 
in the centre of Paris, examining the surface of our 
satellite with all its craters and valleys and bleak 
desolation. 

" I had won the day." 



193 N 



PHOTOGRAPHING THE INVISIBLE. 

Most of us are able to recognise when we see them 
shadowgraphs taken by the aid of the now famous 
X-rays. They generally represent some part of the 
structure of men, beasts, birds, or fishes. Very dark 
patches show the position of the bones, large and 
small ; lighter patches the more solid muscles 
clinging to the bony framework ; and outside these 
again are shadowy tracts corresponding to the 
thinnest and most transparent portions of the fleshy 
envelope. 

In an age fruitful as this in scientific marvels, it 
often takes some considerable time for the public to 
grasp the full importance of a fresh discovery. But 
when, in 1896, it was announced that Professor 
Rontgen of Wiirzburg had actually taken photo- 
graphs of the internal organs of still living creatures, 
and penetrated metal and other opaque substances 
with a new kind of ray, great interest was manifested 
throughout the civiHsed world. On the one hand the 
" new photography " seemed to upset popular ideas 
of opacity ; on the other it savoured strongly of the 
black art, and, by its easy excursions through the 
human body, seemed likely to revolutionise medical 
and surgical methods. At first many strange ideas 

194 



Photographing the Invisible 

about the X-rays got afloat, attributing to them 
powers which would have surprised even their 
modest discoverer. It was also thought that the 
records were made in a camera after the ordinary 
manner of photography, but as a matter of fact 
Rontgen used neither lens nor camera, the operation 
being similar to that of casting a shadow on a wall 
by means of a lamp. In X-radiography a specially 
constructed electrically-lit glass tube takes the place 
of the lamp, and for the wall is substituted a sensi- 
tised plate. The object to be radiographed is merely 
inserted between them, its various parts offering 
varying resistance to the rays, so that the plate is 
affected unequally, and after exposure may be 
developed and printed from in the usual way. 
Photographs obtained by using X-rays are there- 
fore properly called shadowgraphs or skiagraphs. 

The discovery that has made Professor Rontgen 
famous is, like many great discoveries, based upon 
the labours of other men in the same field. Geissler, 
whose vacuum tubes are so well known for their 
striking colour effects, had already noticed that 
electric discharges sent through very much rarefied 
air or gases produced beautiful glows. Sir William 
Crookes, following the same line of research, and 
reducing with a Sprengel air-pump the internal 
pressure of the tubes to tuwit^ of an atmosphere 
found that a luminous glow streamed from the 
cathode, or negative pole, in a straight line, heating 
and rendering phosphorescent anything that it met. 

195 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Crookes regarded the glow as composed of " radiant 
matter/' and explained its existence as follows. The 
airy particles inside the tube, being few in number, 
are able to move about with far greater freedom than 
in the tightly packed atmosphere outside the tube. A 
particle, on reaching the cathode, is repelled violently 
by it in a straight line, to " bombard " another par- 
ticle, the walls of the tube, or any object set up in its 
path, the sudden arrest of motion being converted 
into Hght and heat. 

By means of special tubes he proved that the 
<^ radiant matter" could turn little vanes, and that 
the flow continued even when the terminals of the 
shocking-coil were outside the glass, thus meeting the 
contention of Puluj that the radiant matter was 
nothing more than small particles of platinum torn 
from the terminals. He also showed that, when 
intercepted, radiant matter cast a shadow, the inter- 
cepting object receiving the energy of the bombard- 
ment ; but that when the obstruction was removed 
the hitherto sheltered part of the glass wall of the 
tube glowed with a brighter phosphorescence than the 
part which had become ^^ tired " by prolonged bom- 
bardment. Experiments further revealed the fact 
that the shaft of ^^ Cathode rays " could be deflected 
by a magnet from their course, and that they affected 
an ordinary photographic plate exposed to them. 

In 1894 Lenard, a Hungarian, and pupil of the 
famous Hertz, fitted a Crookes' tube with a ^' window " 
of aluminium in its side replacing a part of the glass, 

196 



Photographing the Invisible 

and saw that the course of the rays could be traced 
through the outside air. From this it was evident 
that something else than matter must be present in 
the shaft of energy sent from the negative terminal of 
the tube, as there was no direct communication be- 
tween the interior and the exterior of the tube to 
account for the external phosphorescence. What- 
ever was the nature of the rays he succeeded in 
making them penetrate and impress themselves on a 
sensitised plate enclosed in a metal box. 

Then in 1896 came Rontgen's great discovery that 
the rays from a Crookes' tube, after traversing the 
glass, could pierce opaque matter. He covered the 
tube with thick cardboard, but found that it would 
still cast the shadows of books, cards, wood, metals, 
the human hand, &c., on to a photographic plate 
even at the distance of some feet. The rays would 
also pass through the wood, metal, or bones in course 
of time ; but certain bodies, notably metals, offered a 
much greater resistance than others, such as wood, 
leather, and paper. Professor Rontgen crowned his 
efforts by showing that a skeleton could be *^ shadow- 
graphed " while its owner was still alive. 

Naturally everybody wished to know not only 
what the rays could do, but what they were. 
Rontgen, not being able to identify them with 
any known rays, took refuge in the algebraical 
symbol of the unknown quantity and dubbed them 
X-rays. He discovered this much, however, that 
they were invisible to the eye under ordinary condi- 

197 



Romance of Modern Invention 

tions ; that they travelled in straight lines only, 
passing through a prism, water, or other refracting 
bodies without turning aside from their path ; and 
that a magnet exerted no power over them. This 
last fact was sufficient of itself to prevent their con- 
fusion with the radiant matter '^ cathode rays " of 
the tube. Rontgen thought, nevertheless, that they 
might be the cathode rays transmuted in some 
manner by their passage through the glass, so as to 
resemble in their motion sound-waves, i.e, moving 
straight forward and not swaying from side to side 
in a series of zig-zags. The existence of such ether 
waves had for some time before been suspected by 
Lord Kelvin. 

Other authorities have other theories. We may 
mention the view that X represents the ultra- 
violet rays of the spectrum, caused by vibrations 
of such extreme rapidity as to be imperceptible to 
the human eye, just as sounds of extremely high 
pitch are inaudible to the ear. This theory is to 
a certain extent upheld by the behaviour of the 
photographic plate, which is least affected by the 
colours of the spectrum at the red end and most 
by those at the violet end. A photographer is 
able to use red or orange light in his dark 
room because his plates cannot ^' see " them, 
though he can ; whereas the reverse would be 
the case with X-rays. This ultra-violet theory 
claims for X-rays a rate of ether vibration of 
trillions of waves per second. 

198 



Photographing the Invisible 

An alternative theory is to relegate the rays to 
the gap in the scale of ether-waves between heat- 
waves and light-waves. But this does not explain 
any more satisfactorily than the other the peculiar 
phenomenon of non-refraction. 

The apparatus employed in X-photography con- 
sists of a Crookes' tube of a special type, a powerful 
shocking or induction coil, a fluorescent screen 
and photographic plates and appliances for de- 
veloping, &c., besides a supply of high-pressure 
electricity derived from the main, a small dynamo 
or batteries. 

A Crookes' tube is four to five inches in diameter, 
globular in its middle portion, but tapering away 
towards each end. Through one extremity is led 
a platinum wire, terminating in a saucer-shaped 
platinum plate an inch or so across. At the focus 
of this, the negative terminal, is fixed a platinum 
plate at an angle to the path of the rays so as 
to deflect them through the side of the tube. The 
positive terminal penetrates the glass at one side. 
The tube contains, as we have seen, a very tiny 
residue of air. If this were entirely exhausted the 
action --of the tube would cease ; so that some 
tubes are so arranged that when rarefaction be- 
comes too high the passage of an electrical current 
through small bars of chemicals, whose ends pro- 
ject through the sides of the tube, liberates gas 
from the bars in sufficient quantity to render the 
tube active again. 

199 



Romance of Modern Invention 

When the Ruhmkorff induction coil is joined 
to the electric circuit a series of violent discharges 
of great rapidity occur between the tube terminals, 
resembling in their power the discharge of a Leyden 
jar, though for want of a dense atmosphere the 
brilliant spark has been replaced by a glow and 
brush-light in the tube. The coil is of large dimen- 
sions, capable of passing a spark across an air- 
gap of ten to twelve inches. It will perhaps increase 
the reader's respect for X-rays to learn that a 
coil of proper size contains upwards of thirteen 
miles of wire ; though indeed this quantity is 
nothing in comparison with the 150 miles wound 
on the huge inductorium formerly exhibited at 
the London Polytechnic. 

If we were invited to an X-ray demonstration 
we should find the operator and his apparatus in 
a darkened room. He turns on the current and 
the darkness is broken by a velvety glow sur- 
rounding the negative terminal, which gradually 
extends until the whole tube becomes clothed in 
a green phosphorescence. A sharply- defined line 
athwart the tube separates the shadowed part be- 
hind the receiving plate at the negative focus — 
now intensely hot — from that on which the re- 
flected rays fall directly. 

One of us is now invited to extend a hand 
close to the tube. The operator then holds on 
the near side of the hand his fluorescent screen, 
which is nothing more than a framework support- 

200 



Photographing the Invisible 

ing a paper smeared on one side with platino- 
cyanide of barium, a chemical that, in common 
with several others, was discovered by Salvioni of 
Perugia to be sensitive to the rays and able to 
make them visible to the human eye. The value 
of the screen to the X-radiographer is that of the 
ground-glass plate to the ordinary photographer, 
as it allows him to see exactly what things are 
before the sensitised plate is brought into position, 
and in fact largely obviates the necessity for making 
a permanent record. 

The screen shows clearly and in full detail all 
the bones of the hand — so clearly that one is 
almost irresistibly drawn to peep behind to see if 
a real hand is there. One of us now extends an 
arm and the screen shows us the ulna and the 
radius working round each other, now both visible, 
now one obscuring the other. On presenting the 
body to the course of the rays a remarkable 
shadow is cast on to the screen. The spinal 
column and the ribs ; the action of the heart and 
lungs are seen quite distinctly. A deep breath 
causes the movement of a dark mass — the liver. 
There is no privacy in presence of the rays. The 
enlarged heart, the diseased lung, the ulcerated 
liver betrays itself at once. In a second of time 
the phosphorescent screen reveals what might baulk 
medical examination for months. 

If a photographic slide containing a dry-plate 
be substituted for the focusing-screen, the rays 

201 



Romance of Modern Invention 

soon penetrate any covering in which the plate 
may be wrapped to protect it from ordinary Hght 
rays. The process of taking a shadowgraph may 
therefore be conducted in broad daylight, which 
is under certain conditions a great advantage, 
though the sensitiveness of plates exposed to 
Rontgen rays entails special care being taken of 
them when they are not in use. In the early 
days of X-radiography an exposure of some 
minutes was necessary to secure a negative, but 
now, thanks to the improvements in the tubes, a 
few seconds is often sufficient. 

The discovery of the X-rays is a great discovery, 
because it has done much to promote the noblest 
possible cause, the alleviation of human suffering. 
Not everybody will appreciate a more rapid mode 
of telegraphy, or a new method of spinning yarn, 
but the dullest intellect will give due credit to a 
scientific process that helps to save life and limb. 
Who among us is not liable to break an arm or leg, 
or suffer from internal injuries invisible to the eye ? 
Who among us therefore should not be thankful on 
reflecting that, in event of such a mishap, the X-rays 
will be at hand to show just what the trouble is, 
how to deal with it, and how far the healing ad- 
vances day by day ? The X-ray apparatus is now 
as necessary for the proper equipment of a hospital 
as a camera for that of a photographic studio. 

It is especially welcome in the hospitals which 
accompany an army into the field. Since May 1896 

202 



Photographing the Invisible 

many a wounded soldier has had reason to bless the 
patient work that led to the discovery at Wurzburg. 
The Greek war, the war in Cuba, the Tirah cam- 
paign, the Egyptian campaign, and the war in South 
Africa, have given a quick succession of fine oppor- 
tunities for putting the new photography to the test. 
These is now small excuse for the useless and agon- 
ising probings that once added to the dangers and 
horrors of the military hospital. Even if the X-ray 
equipment, by reason of its weight, cannot con- 
veniently be kept at the front of a rapidly moving 
army, it can be set up in the ^* advanced " or '^ base " 
hospitals, whither the wounded are sent after a first 
rough dressing of their injuries. The medical staff 
there subject their patients to the searching rays, are 
able to record the exact position of a bullet or shell- 
fragment, and the damage it has done ; and by 
promptly removing the intruder to greatly lessen 
its power to harm. 

The Rontgen ray has added to the surgeon's ar- 
moury a powerful weapon. Its possibilities are not 
yet fully known, but there can be no doubt that it 
marks a new epoch in surgical work. And for this 
reason 'Professor Rontgen deserves to rank with 
Harvey, the discoverer of the blood's circulation ; 
with Jenner, the father of vaccination ; and with Sir 
James Young Simpson, the first doctor to use chloro- 
form as an aucesthetic. 



203 



Romance of Modern Invention 



Photography in the Dark. 

Strange as it seems to take photographs with in- 
visible rays, it is still stranger to be able to affect 
sensitised plates without apparently the presence of 
any kind of rays. 

Professor W. J. Russell, Vice-President of the 
Royal Society of London, has discovered that many 
substances have the power of impressing their out- 
lines automatically on a sensitive film, if the sub- 
stance be placed in a dark cupboard in contact with, 
or very close to a dry-plate. 

After some hours, or it may be days, development 
of the plate will reveal a distinct impression of the 
body in question. Dr. Russell experimented with 
wood, metal, leaves, drawings, printed matter, lace. 
Zinc proved to be an unusually active agent. A 
plate of the metal, highly polished and then ruled 
with patterns, had at the end of a few days imparted 
a record of every scratch and mark to the plate. 
And not only will zinc impress itself, but it affects 
substances which are not themselves active, throwing 
shadowgraphs on to the plate. This was demon- 
strated with samples of lace, laid between a plate and 
a small sheet of bright zinc ; also with a skeleton 
leaf. It is curious that while the interposition of 
thin films of celluloid, gutta-percha, vegetable parch- 
ment, and gold-beater's skin — all inactive — between 
the zinc and the plate has no obstructive effect, a 

204 



Photography in the Dark 

plate of thin glass counteracts the action of the zinc. 
Besides zinc, nickel, aluminium, pewter, lead, and 
tin among the metals influence a sensitised plate. 
Another totally different substance, printer's ink, has 
a similar power ; or at least some printer's ink, for 
Professor Russell found that different samples varied 
greatly in their effects. What is especially curious, 
the printed matter on both sides of a piece of news- 
paper appeared on the plate, and that the effect pro- 
ceeded from the ink and not from any rays passing 
from beyond it is proved by the fact that the type 
came out dark in the development, whereas if it had 
been a case of shadowgraphy, the ink by intercepting 
rays would have produced white letters. Professor 
Russell has also shown that modern writing ink is 
incapable of producing an impression unaided, but 
that on the other hand paper wTitten on a hundred 
years ago or a printed book centuries old will, with 
the help of zinc, yield a picture in which even faded 
and uncertain characters appear quite distinctly. 
This opens the way to a practical use of the 
discovery, in the deciphering of old and partly 
obliterated manuscripts. 

A very interesting experiment may be made with 
that useful possession — a five-pound note. Place the 
note printed side next to the plate, and the printing 
appears dark ; but insert the note between a zinc 
sheet and the plate, its back being this time towards 
the sensitised surface, and the printing appears white; 
and the zinc, after contact with the printed side, will 

205 



Romance of Modern Invention 

itself yield a picture of the inscription as though it 
had absorbed some virtue from the note ! 

As explanation of this paradoxical dark photo- 
graphy — or whatever it is — two theories may be 
advanced. The one — favoured by Professor Russell 
— is that all " active " substances give off vapours 
able to act on a photographic plate. In support 
of this may be urged the fact that the interposition 
of glass prevents the making of dark pictures. But 
on the other hand it must be remembered that cel- 
luloid and sheet-gelatine, also air-tight substances, are 
able to store up light and to give it out again. It is 
well known among photographers that to allow sun- 
light to fall on the inside of a camera is apt to have 
a <* fogging " effect on a plate that is exposed in the 
camera afterwards, though the greatest care be taken 
to keep all external light from the plate. But here 
the glass again presents a difficulty, for if this were a 
case of reflected light, glass would evidently be less 
obstructive than opaque vegetable parchment or 
gutta-percha. 



206 



SOLAR MOTORS. 

One day George Stephenson and a friend stood 
watching a train drawn by one of his locomotives. 

<^ What moves that train ? " asked Stephenson. 

''The engine/' replied his friend. 

" And what moves the engine ? " 

'' The steam." 

" And what produces the steam ? " 

'' Coal." 

'' And what produces coal ? " 

This last query nonplussed his friend, and Stephen- 
son himself replied, '' The sun." 

The '' bottled sunshine " that drove the locomotive 
was stored up millions of years ago in the dense 
forests then covering the face of the globe. Every 
day vegetation was built by the sunbeams, and in 
the course of ages this growth was crushed into 
fossil form by the pressure of high-piled rock and 
debris.^ To-day we cast " black diamonds " into our 
grates and furnaces, to call out the warmth and 
power that is a legacy from a period long prior to 
the advent of fire-loving man, often forgetful of its 
real source. 

We see the influence of the sun more directly 
in the motions of wind and water. Had not the 

207 



Romance of Modern Invention 

sun's action deposited snow and rain on the uplands 
of the worlds there would be no roaring waterfall, 
no rushing torrent, no smooth-flowing stream. But 
for the sun heating the atmosphere unequally, there 
would not be that rushing of cool air to replace 
hot which we know as wind. 

We press Sol into our service when we burn fuel ; 
our wind-mills and water-mills make him our slave. 
Of late years many prophets have arisen to warn 
us that we must not be too lavish of our coal ; that 
the time is not so far distant, reckoning by centuries, 
when the coal-seams of the world will be worked 
out and leave our descendants destitute of what plays 
so important a part in modern life. Now, though 
waste is unpardonable, and the care for posterity 
praiseworthy, there really seems to be no good reason 
why we should alarm ourselves about the welfare 
of the people of the far future. Even if coal fails, 
the winds and the rivers will be there, and the huge 
unharnessed energy of the tides, and the sun himself 
is ready to answer appeals for help, if rightly shaped. 
He does not demand the prayers of Persian fire- 
worshippers, but rather the scientific gathering of 
his good gifts. 

Place your hand on a roof lying square to the 
summer sun, and you will find it too hot for the 
touch. Concentrate a beam of sunshine through a 
small burning-glass. How fierce is the small glowing 
focal spot that makes us draw our hands suddenly 
away ! Suppose now a large glass many feet across 

208 



Solar Motors 

bending several square yards of sun rays to a point, 
and at that point a boiler. The boiler would develop 
steam, and the steam might be led into cylinders 
and forced to drudge for us. 

Do many of us realise the enormous energy of 
a hot summer's day ? The heat falling in the tropics 
on a single square foot of the earth's surface has 
been estimated as the equivalent of one-third of a 
horse-power. The force of Niagara itself would on 
this basis be matched by the sunshine streaming on 
to a square mile or so. A steamship might be pro- 
pelled by the heat that scorches its decks. 

For many centuries inventors have tried to utilise 
this huge waste power. We all know how, according 
to the story, Archimedes burnt up the Roman ships 
besieging his native town, Syracuse, by concentrating 
on them the sun heat cast from hundreds of mirrors. 
This story is less probable than interesting as a proof 
that the ancients were aware of the sun's power. 
The first genuine solar machine was the work of 
Ericsson, the builder of the Monitor, He focused sun 
heat on a boiler, which gave tlie equivalent of one 
horse-power for every hundred square feet of mirrors 
employed. This was not what engineers w^ould call 
a " high efficiency," a great deal of heat being wasted, 
but it led the way to further improvements. 

In America, especially in the dry, arid regions, 
where fuel is scarce and the sun shines pitilessly day 
after day, all the year round, sun-catchers of various 
types have been erected and worked successfully. 

209 O 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Dr. William Calver, of Washington, has built in the 
barren wastes of Arizona huge frames of mirrors, 
travelling on circular rails, so that they may be 
brought to face the sun at all hours between sunrise 
and sunset. Dr. Calver employs no less than 1600 
mirrors. As each of these mirrors develops 10—15 
degrees of heat it is obvious, after an appeal to 
sirnple arithmetic, that the united efforts of these 
reflectors should produce the tremendous temperature 
16,000-24,000 degrees, which, expressed compara- 
tively, means the paltry 90 degrees in the shade 
beneath which we grow restive multiplied hundreds 
of times. Hitherto the greatest known heat had 
been that of the arc of the electric lamp, in which 
the incandescent particles between pole and pole 
attain 6000 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The combined effect of the burning mirrors is 
irresistible. They can, we are told, in a few moments 
reduce Russian iron to the consistency of warmed 
wax, though it mocks the heat of many blast-furnaces. 
They will bake bricks twenty times as rapidly as any 
kiln, and the bricks produced are not the friable 
blocks which a mason chips easily with his trowel, 
but bodies so hard as to scratch case-hardened steel. 

There are at work in California sun-motors of 
another design. The reader must imagine a huge 
conical lamp-shade turned over on to its smaller end, 
its inner surface lined with nearly 1800 mirrors 2 
feet long and 3 inches broad, the whole supported 
on a light iron framework, and he will have a good 

210 



Solar Motors 

idea of the apparatus used on the Pasadena ostrich 
farm. The machine is arranged in meridian^ that is, 
at right angles to the path of the sun, which it follows 
all day long by the agency of clockwork. In the 
focus of the mirrors is a boiler, 13 feet 6 inches 
long, coated with black, heat-absorbing substances. 
This boiler holds over 100 gallons of water, and 
being fed automatically will raise steam untended 
all the day through. The steam is led by pipes to 
an engine working a pump, capable of delivering 
1400 gallons per minute. 

The cheapness of the apparatus in proportion to 
its utility is so marked that, in regions where sun- 
shine is almost perpetual, the solar motor will in 
time become as common as are windmills and factory 
chimneys elsewhere. If the heat falling on a few 
square yards of mirror lifts nearly 100,000 gallons 
of water an hour, there is indeed hope for the 
Sahara, the Persian Desert, Arabia, Mongolia, Mexico, 
Australia. That is to say, if the water under the 
earth be in these parts as plentiful as the sunshine 
above it. The effect of water on the most un- 
promising soil is marvellous. Already in Algeria 
the French have reclaimed thousands of square miles 
by scientific irrigation. In Australia huge artesian 
wells have made habitable for man and beast millions 
of acres that were before desert. 

It is only a just retribution that the sun should 
be harnessed and compelled to draw water for tracts 
to which he has so long denied it. The sun-motor 

21 1 



Romance of Modern Invention 

is only just entering on its useful career^ and at 
present we can but dream of the great effects it may 
have on future civilisation. Yet its principle is so 
simple, so scientific^ and so obvious, that it is easy 
to imagine it at no far distant date a dangerous rival 
to King Coal himself. To quarry coal from the 
bowels of the earth and transform it into heat, is 
to traverse two sides of a triangle, the third being 
to use the sunshine of the passing hour. 



212 



LIQUID AIR. 

Among common phenomena few are more interest- 
ing than the changes undergone by the substance 
called water. Its usual form is a liquid. Under the 
influence of frost it becomes hard as iron, brittle as 
glass. At the touch of fire it passes into unsub- 
stantial vapour. 

This transformation illustrates the great principle 
that the form of every substance im the universe is a 
question of heat. A metal transported from the 
earth to the sun would first melt and then vaporise ; 
while what we here know only as vapours would in 
the moon turn into liquids. 

We notice that, as regards bulk, the most striking 
change is from liquid to gaseous form. In steam 
the atoms and molecules of water are endowed with 
enormous repulsive vigour. Each atom suddenly 
shows a huge distaste for the company of its neigh- 
bours, drives them off, and endeavours to occupy 
the largest possible amount of private space. 

Now, though we are accustomed to see water- 
atoms thus stirred into an activity which gives us the 
giant steam as servant, it has probably fallen to the 
lot of but few of us to encounter certain gaseous 
substances so utterly deprived of their self-assertive- 

213 



Romance of Modern Invention 

ness as to collapse into a liquid mass, in which shape 
they are quite strangers to us. What gaseous body 
do we know better than the air we breathe ? and 
what should we less expect to be reducible to the 
consistency of water ? Yet science has lately 
brought prominently into notice that strange child 
of pressure and cold, Liquid Air ; of which great 
things are prophesied, and about which many strange 
facts may be told. 

Very likely our readers have sometimes noticed a 
porter uncoupling the air-tube between two railway 
carriages. He first turns off the tap at each end of 
the tube, and then by a twist disconnects a joint in 
the centre. At the moment of disconnection what 
appears to be a small cloud of steam issues from the 
joint. This is, however, the result of cold, not heat, 
the tube being full of highly-compressed air, which 
by its sudden expansion develops cold sufficient to 
freeze any particles of moisture in the surrounding 
air. 

Keep this in mind, and also what happens when 
you inflate your cycle-tyre. The air-pump grows 
hotter and hotter as inflation proceeds : until at last, 
if of metal, it becomes uncomfortably warm. The 
heat is caused by the forcing together of air- 
molecules, and inasmuch as all force produces heat, 
your strength is transformed into warmth. 

In these two operations, compression and expan- 
sion, we have the key to the creation of liquid air — 
the great power, as some say, of to-morrow. 

214 




ii^'?' 




lU 










o-^ 



aJ'l 



Liquid Air 

Suppose we take a volume of air and squeeze it 
into T^ of its original space. The combativeness 
of the air-atoms is immensely increased. They 
pound each other frantically, and become very 
hot in the process. Now, by cooling the vessel in 
which they are, we rob them of their energy. They 
become quiet, but they are much closer than before. 
Then imagine that all of a sudden we let them loose 
again. The life is gone out of them, their heat has 
departed, and on separating they shiver grievously. 
In other words, the heat contained by the rwu volume 
is suddenly compelled to ** spread itself thin " over 
the whole volume : result — intense cold. And if 
this air be brought to bear upon a second vessel 
filled likewise with compressed air, the cold will be 
even more intense, until at last the air-atoms lose all 
their strength and collapse into a liquid. 

Liquid air is no new thing. Who first made it is 
uncertain. The credit has been claimed for several 
people, among them Olzewski, a Pole, and Pictet, a 
Swiss. As a mere laboratory experiment the manu- 
facture of liquid air in small quantities has been 
known for twenty years or more. The earHer process 
was one of terrific compression alone, actually 
forcing the air molecules by sheer strength into such 
close contact that their antagonism to one another 
was temporarily overcome. So expensive was the 
process that the first ounce of liquid air is estimated 
to have cost over ;£6oo 1 

In order to make liquid air an article of commerce 
215 



Romance of Modern Invention 

the most important condition was a wholesale 
decrease in cost of production. In 1857 ^' W. 
Siemens took out a patent for making the liquid on 
what is known as the regenerative principle, whereby 
the compressed air is chilled by expanding a part of 
it. Professor Dewar — a scientist well known for his 
researches in the field of liquid gases — had in 1892 
produced liquid air by a modification of the principle 
at comparatively small cost ; and other inventors 
have since then still further reduced the expense, 
until at the present day there appears to be a 
prospect of liquid air becoming cheap enough to 
prove a dangerous rival to steam and electricity. 

A company, known as the Liquid Air, Power 
and Automobile Company, has established large 
plants in America and England for the manufac- 
ture of the liquid on a commercial scale. The 
writer paid a visit to their depot in Gillingham 
Street, London, where he was shown the process 
by Mr. Hans Knudsen, the inventor of much of 
the machinery there used. The reader will doubt- 
less like to learn the ^' plain, unvarnished truth " 
about the creation of this peculiar liquid, and to 
hear of the freaks in which it indulges — if indeed 
those may be called freaks which are but obedi- 
ence to the unchanging laws of Nature. 

On entering the factory the first thing that 
strikes the eye and ear is the monstrous fifty horse- 
power gas-engine, pounding away with an energy 
that shakes the whole building. From its ponder- 

216 



Liquid Air 

ous flywheels great leather belts pass to the com- 
pressors, three in number, by which the air, drawn 
from outside the building through special purifiers, 
is subjected to an increasing pressure. Three dials 
on the wall show exactly what is going on inside 
the compressors. The first stands at 90 lbs. to 
the square inch, the second at 500, and the third 
at 2200, or rather less than a ton pressure on the 
area of a penny ! The pistons of the low-pressure 
compressor is ten inches in diameter, but that of 
the high pressure only two inches, or 2V of the area, 
so great is the resistance to be overcome in the 
last stage of compression. 

Now, if the cycle-pump heats our hands, it will 
be easily understood that the temperature of the 
compressors is very high. They are water- jacketed 
like the cylinders of a gas-engine, so that a circu- 
lating stream of cold water may absorb some of 
the heat. The compressed air is passed through 
spiral tubes winding through large tanks of water 
which fairly boils from the fierceness of the heat 
of compression. 

When the air has been sufficiently cooled it is 
allowedr to pass into a small chamber, expanding 
as it goes, and from the small into a larger chamber, 
where the cold of expansion becomes so acute 
that the air-molecules collapse into liquid, which 
collects in a special receptacle. Arrangements are 
made whereby any vapour rising from the liquid 
passes through a space outside the expansion- 

217 



Romance of Modern Invention 

chambers, so that it helps to cool the incoming 
air and is not wasted. 

The liquid-air tank is inside a great wooden case, 
carefully protected from the heat of the atmos- 
phere by non-conducting substances. A tap being 
turned, a rush of vapour shoots out, soon followed 
by a clear, bluish liquid, which is the air we breathe 
in a fresh guise. 

A quantity of it is collected in a saucepan. It 
simmers at first, and presently boils like water on 
a fire. The air-heat is by comparison so great that 
the liquid cannot resist it, and strives to regain 
its former condition. 

You may dip your finger into the saucepan — 
if you withdraw it again quickly — without hurt. 
The cushion of air that your finger takes in with 
it protects you against harm — for a moment. But 
if you held it in the liquid for a couple of seconds 
you would be minus a digit. Pour a little over 
your coat sleeve. It flows harmlessly to the 
ground, where it suddenly expands into a cloud 
of chilly vapour. 

Put some in a test tube and cork it up. The 
cork soon flies out with a report — the pressure 
of the boiling air drives it. Now watch the boil- 
ing process. The nitrogen being more volatile — 
as it boils at a lower temperature than oxygen — 
passes off first, leaving the pure, blue oxygen. The 
temperature of this liquid is over 312 degrees 
below zero (as far below the temperature of the 

218 



Liquid Air 



air we breathe as the temperature of molten lead 
is above it I). A tumbler of liquid oxygen dipped 
into water is soon covered with a coating of ice, 
which can be detached from the tumbler and 
itself used as a cup to hold the liquid. If a bit 
of steel wire be now twisted round a lighted 
match and the whole dipped into the cup, the 
steel flares fiercely and fuses into small pellets ; 
which means that an operation requiring 3000 
degrees Fahrenheit has been accomplished in a 
liquid 300 degrees below zero I 

Liquid air has curious effects upon certain sub- 
stances. It makes iron so brittle that a ladle 
immersed for a few moments may be crushed in 
the hands ; but, curiously enough, it has a tough- 
ening effect on copper and brass. Meat, eggs, 
fruit, and all bodies containing water become 
hard as steel and as breakable as glass. Mercury 
is by it congealed to the consistency of iron ; even 
alcohol, that can brave the utmost Arctic cold, 
succumbs to it. The writer was present when 
some thermometers, manufactured by Messrs. 
Negretti and Zambra, were tested with liquid air. 
The spirit in the tubes rapidly descended to 250 
degrees below zero, then sank slowly, and at about 
260 degrees froze and burst the bulb. The mea- 
suring of such extreme temperatures is a very 
difficult matter in consequence of the inability of 
spirit to withstand them, and special apparatus, 
registering cold by the shrinkage of metal, must 

219 



Romance of Modern Invention 

be used for testing some liquid gaseS; notably 
liquid hydrogen, which is so much colder than 
liquid air that it actually freezes it into a solid 
ice form ! 

For handling and transporting liquid gases glass 
receptacles with a double skin from which all 
air has been exhausted are employed. The sur- 
rounding vacuum is so perfect an insulator that 
a " Dewar bulb " full of liquid air scarcely cools 
the hand, though the intervening space is less 
than an inch. This fact is hard to square with 
the assertion of scientific men that our atmosphere 
extends but a hundred or two miles from the 
earth's surface, and that the recesses of space are 
a vacuum. If it were so, how would heat reach 
us from the sun, ninety-two millions of miles 
away ? 

One use at least for liquid air is sufficiently 
obvious. As a refrigerating agent it is unequalled. 
Bulk for bulk its effect is of course far greater than 
that of ice ; and it has this advantage over other 
freezing compounds, that whereas slow freezing has 
a destructive effect upon the tissues of meat and 
fruit, the instantaneous action of liquid air has no 
bad results when the thing frozen is thawed out 
again. The Liquid Air Company therefore proposes 
erecting depots at large ports for supplying ships, to 
preserve the food, cool the cabins in the tropics, and, 
we hope, to alleviate some of the horrors of the 
stokehold. 

220 



Liquid Air 

Liquid air is already used in medical and surgical 
science. In surgery it is substituted for anagsthetics, 
deadening any part of the body on which an opera- 
tion has to be performed. In fever hospitals, too, 
its cooling influence will be welcomed ; and liquid 
oxygen takes the places of compressed oxygen for 
reviving the flickering flame of life. It will also 
prove invaluable for divers and submarine boats. 

In combination with oil and charcoal liquid air, 
under the name of *^ oxyliquit," becomes a powerful 
blasting agent. Cartridges of paper filled with the 
oil and charcoal are provided with a firing primer. 
When everything is ready for the blasting the cart- 
ridges are dropped into a vessel full of liquid air, 
saturated, placed in position, and exploded. Mr. 
Knudsen assured the writer that oxyliquit is twice 
as powerful as nitro-glycerine, and its cost but one- 
third of that of the other explosive. It is also safer 
to handle, for in case of a misfire the cartridge be- 
comes harmless in a few minutes, after the liquid air 
has evaporated. 

But the greatest use will be found for liquid air 
when it exerts its force less violently. It is the 
result of power ; its condition is abnormal ; and its 
return to its ordinary state is accompanied by a 
great development of energy. If it be placed in a 
closed vessel it is capable of exerting a pressure of 
12,000 lbs. to the square inch. Its return to atmo- 
spheric condition may be regulated by exposing it 
more or less to the heat of the atmosphere. So long 

221 



Romance of Modern Invention 

as it remains liquid it represents so much stored forcey 
like the electricity stored in accumulators. The 
Liquid Air Company have at their Gillingham Street 
depot a neat little motor car worked by liquid air. A 
copper reservoir, carefully protected, is filled with the 
liquid, which is by mechanical means squirted into 
coils, in which it rapidly expands, and from them 
passes to the cylinders. A charge of eighteen gallons 
will move the car forty miles at an average pace of 
twelve miles an hour, without any of the noise, dirt, 
smell, or vapour inseparable from the employment of 
steam or petroleum. The speed of the car is regulated 
by the amount of liquid injected into the expansion 
coils. 

We now come to the question of cost — the un- 
romantic balance in which new discoveries are 
weighed and many found wanting. The storage 
of liquid air is feasible for long periods. (A large 
vacuum bulb filled and exposed to the atmosphere 
had some of the liquid still unevaporated at the end 
of twenty-two days.) But will it be too costly for 
ordinary practical purposes now served by steam and 
electricity? The managers of the Liquid Air Com- 
pany, while deprecating extravagant prophecies about 
the future of their commodity, are nevertheless con- 
fident that it has "come to stay." With the small 
50 horse-power plant its production costs upwards 
of one shilling a gallon, but with much larger plant 
of 1000 horse-power they calculate that the expenses 
will be covered and a profit left if they retail it at 

222 



Liquid Air 



but one penny the gallon. This great reduction in 
cost arises from the economising of "waste energy." 
In the first place the power of expansion previous to 
the liquefaction of the compressed air will be utilised 
to work motors. Secondly, the heat of the cooling 
tanks will be turned to account, and even the 
" exhaust " of a motor would be cold enough for 
ordinary refrigerating. It is, of course, impossible 
to get more out of a thing than has been put into it ; 
and liquid air will therefore not develop even as 
much power as was required to form it. But its 
handiness and cleanliness strongly recommend it for 
many purposes, as we have seen ; and as soon as it 
is turned out in large quantities new uses will be 
found for it. Perhaps the day will come when 
Hquid-air motors will replace the petrol car, and in 
every village we shall see hung out the sign, " Liquid 
air sold here." As the French say, ^^ Quivivraverray 



223 



HORSELESS CARRIAGES. 

A BODY of enterprising Manchester merchants, in 
the year 1754, put on the road a "flying coach/* 
which, according to their special advertisement, 
would, " however incredible it may appear, actually, 
barring accidents, arrive in London in four and a 
half days after leaving Manchester." According to 
the Lord Chancellor of the time such swift travelling 
was considered dangerous as well as wonderful — 
the condition of the roads might well make it so 
— and also injurious to health. " I was gravely 
advised," he says, "to stay a day in York on my 
journey between Edinburgh and London, as several 
passengers who had gone through without stopping had 
died of apoplexy from the rapidity of the motion." 

As the coach took a fortnight to pass from the 
Scotch to the English capital, at an average pace 
of between three and four miles an hour, it is 
probable that the Chancellor's advisers would be 
very seriously indisposed by the mere sight of a 
motor-car whirling along in its attendant cloud of 
dust, could they be resuscitated for the purpose. 
And we, on the other hand, should prefer to get 
out and walk to "flying" at the safe speed of their 
mail coaches. 

224 







^ ^ 



gi^ 



ti^ 






Horseless Carriages 

The improvement of highroads, and road-making 
generally, accelerated the rate of posting. In the 
first quarter of the nineteenth century an average 
of ten or even twelve miles an hour was maintained 
on the Bath Road. But that pace was considered 
inadequate when the era of the *• iron horse " com- 
menced, and the decay of stage-driving followed 
hard upon the growth of railways. What should 
have been the natural successor of the stage-coach 
was driven from the road by ill-advised legislation, 
which gave the railroads a monopoly of swift trans- 
port, which has but lately been removed. 

The history of the steam-coach, steam-carriage, 
automobile, motor-car — to give it its successive 
names — is in a manner unique, showing as it does, 
instead of steady development of a practical means 
of locomotion, a sudden and decisive check to an 
invention worthy of far better treatment than it 
received. The compiler of even a short survey of 
the automobile's career is obliged to divide his 
account into two main portions, linked together by 
a few solitary engineering achievements. 

The first period (i 800-1 836), will, without any 
desire to arrogate for England more than her due 
or to belittle the efforts of any other nations, be 
termed the English period, since in it England took 
the lead, and produced by far the greatest number 
of steam-carriages. The second (1870 to the present 
day) may, with equal justice, be styled the Continental 
period, as witnessing the great developments made 

225 p 



Romance of Modern Invention 

in automobilism by French, German, Belgian, and 
American engineers : England, for reasons that will 
be presently noticed, being until quite recently too 
heavily handicapped to take a part in the advance. 

Historical— li is impossible to discover who made 
the first self-moving carriage. In the sixteenth 
century one Johann Haustach, a Nuremberg watch- 
maker, produced a vehicle that derived its motive 
power from coiled springs, and was in fact a large 
edition of our modern clockwork toys. About the 
same time the Dutch, and among them especially 
one Simon Stevin, fitted carriages with sails, and 
there are records of a steam-carriage as early as the 
same century. 

But the first practical, and at least semi-successful, 
automobile driven by internal force was undoubtedly 
that of a Frenchman, Nicholas Joseph Cugnot, who 
justly merits the title of father of automobilism. His 
machine, which is to-day one of the most treasured 
exhibits in the Paris Museum of Arts and Crafts, 
consisted of a large carriage, having in front a pivoted 
platform bearing the machinery, and resting on a 
solid wheel, which propelled as well as steered the 
vehicle. The boiler, of stout riveted copper plates, 
had below it an enclosed furnace, from which the 
flames passed upwards through the water through 
a funnel. A couple of cylinders, provided with a 
simple reversing gear, worked a ratchet that com- 
municated motion to the driving-wheel. This carriage 
did not travel beyond a very slow walking pace, and 

226 



Horseless Carriages 



Cugnot therefore added certain improvements, after 
which (1770) it reached the still very moderate speed 
of four miles an hour, and distinguished itself by 
charging and knocking down a wall, a feat that is 
said to have for a time deterred engineers from de- 
veloping a seemingly dangerous mode of progression. 

Ten years later Dallery built a steam car, and ran 
it in the streets of Amiens — we are not told with 
what success ; and before any further advance had 
been made with the automobile the French Revolu- 
tion put a stop to all inventions of a peaceful character 
among our neighbours. 

In England, however, steam had already been re- 
cognised as the coming power. Richard Trevethick, 
afterwards to become famous as a railroad engineer, 
built a steam motor in 1802, and actually drove it 
from Cambourne to Plymouth, a distance of ninety 
mileso But instead of following up this success, he 
forsook steam-carriages for the construction of loco- 
motives, leaving his idea to be expanded by other 
men, who were convinced that a vehicle which could 
be driven over existing roads was preferable to one 
that was helpless when separated from smooth metal 
rails. Between the years 1800 and 1836 many steam 
vehicles for road traffic appeared from time to time, 
some, such as David Gordon's (propelled by metal 
legs pressing upon the ground), strangely unpractical, 
but the majority showing a steady improvement in 
mechanical design. 

As it will be impossible, without writing a small 
227 



Romance of Modern Invention 

book, to name all the English constructors of this 
period, we must rest content with the mention of 
the leading pioneers of the new locomotion. 

Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, an eminent chemist, 
did for mechanical road propulsion what George 
Stephenson was doing for railway development. He 
boldly spent large sums on experimental vehicles, 
which took the form of six-wheeled coaches. The 
earliest of these were fitted with legs as well as 
driving-wheels, since he thought that in difficult 
country wheels alone would not have sufficient grip. 
(A similar fallacy was responsible for the cogged 
wheels on the first railways.) But in the later types 
legs were abandoned as unnecessary. His coaches 
easily climbed the steepest hills round London, 
including Highgate Hill, though a thoughtful ma- 
thematician had proved by calculations that a steam- 
carriage, so far from mounting a gradient, could not, 
without violating all natural laws, so much as move 
itself on the level 1 

Having satisfied himself of their power, Gurney 
took his coaches further afield. In 1829 was pub- 
lished the first account of a motor trip made by him 
and three companions through Reading, Devizes, and 
Melksham. The pace was, we read, at first only 
about six miles an hour, including stoppages. They 
drove very carefully to avoid injury to the persons 
or feelings of the country folk ; but at Melksham, 
where a fair was in progress, they had to face a 
shower of stones, hurled by a crowd of roughs at 

228 



Horseless Carriages 

the instigation of some coaching postilions, who 
feared losing their livelihood if the new method of 
locomotion became general. Two of the tourists 
were severely hurt, and Gurney was obliged to take 
shelter in a brewery, where constables guarded his 
coach. On the return journey the party timed their 
movements so as to pass through Melksham while 
the inhabitants were all safely in bed. 

The coach ran most satisfactorily, improving every 
mile. *^Our pace was so rapid," wrote one of the 
company, ^^ that the horses of the mail-cart which 
accompanied us were hard put to it to keep up with 
us. At the foot of Devizes Hill we met a coach and 
another vehicle, which stopped to see us mount this 
hill, an extremely steep one. We ascended it at a 
rapid rate. The coach and passengers, delighted at 
this unexpected sight, honoured us with shouts of 
applause." 

In 1830 Messrs. Ogle and Summers completely 
beat the road record on a vehicle fitted with a tubular 
boiler. This car, put through its trials before a 
Special Commission of the House of Commons, 
attained the astonishing speed of 35 miles an hour 
on the level, and mounted a hill near Southampton 
at 24^ miles an hour. It worked at a boiler pres- 
sure of 250 lbs. to the square inch, and though not 
hung on springs, ran 800 miles without a breakdown. 
This performance appears all the more extraordinary 
when we remember the roads of that day were not 
generally as good as they are now, and that in the 

229 



Romance of Modern Invention 

previous year Stephenson's '' Rocket/' running on 
rails, had not reached a higher velocity. 

The report of the Parliamentary Commission on 
horseless carriages was most favourable. It urged 
that the steam-driven car was swifter and lighter than 
the mail-coaches ; better able to climb and descend 
hills ; safer ; more economical ; and less injurious 
to the roads ; and, in conclusion, that the heavy 
charges levied at the toll-gates (often twenty times 
those on horse vehicles) were nothing short of ini- 
quitous. 

As a result of this report, motor services, inaugu- 
rated by Walter Hancock, Braithwayte, and others, 
commenced between Paddington and the Bank, 
London and Greenwich, London and Windsor, 
London and Stratford. Already, in 1829, Sir 
Charles Dance had a steam-coach running between 
Cheltenham and Gloucester. In four months it ran 
3500 miles and carried 3000 passengers, traversing 
the nine miles in three-quarters of an hour ; although 
narrow-minded landowners placed ridges of stone 
eighteen inches deep on the road by way of protest. 

The most ambitious service of all was that be- 
tween London and Birmingham, estabHshed in 1833 
by Dr. Church. The rolling-stock consisted of a 
single very much decorated coach. 

The success of the road-steamer seemed now 
assured, when a cloud appeared on the horizon. It 
had already been too successful. The railway com- 
panies were up in arms. They saw plainly that if 

230 



Horseless Carriages 

once the roads were covered with vehicles able to 
transport the public at low fares quickly from door 
to door on existing thoroughfares, the construction 
of expensive railroads would be seriously hindered, 
if not altogether stopped. So, taking advantage of 
two motor accidents, the companies appealed to 
Parliament— full of horse-loving squires and manu- 
facturers, who scented profit in the railways — and 
though scientific opinion ran strongly in favour of 
the steam-coach, a law was passed in 1836 which 
rendered the steamers harmless by robbing them of 
their speed. The fiat went forth that in future every 
road locomotive should be preceded at a distance of a hun- 
dred yards by a man on foot carrying a red flag to warn 
passengers of its approach. This law marks the end 
of the first period of automobilism as far as England 
is concerned. At one blow it crippled a great 
industry, deprived the community of a very valuable 
means of transport, and crushed the energies of 
many clever inventors who would soon, if we may 
judge by the rapid advances already made in con- 
struction, have brought the steam-carriage to a high 
pitch of perfection. In the very year in which they 
were su^ressed the steam services had proved their 
efficiency and safety. Hancock's London service 
alone traversed 4200 miles without serious accident, 
and was so popular that the coaches were generally 
crowded. It is therefore hard to believe that these 
vehicles did not supply a public want, or that they 
were regarded by those who used them as in any 

231 



Romance of Modern Invention 

way inferior to horse-drawn coaches. Yet ignorant 
prejudice drove them off the road for sixty years ; 
and to-day it surprises many Englishmen to learn 
that what is generally considered a novel method of 
travelling was already fairly well developed in the 
time of their grandfathers. 

Second Period (1870 onwards). — To follow the 
further development of the automobile we must 
cross the Channel once again. French invention had 
not been idle while Gurney and Hancock were build- 
ing their coaches. In 1835 M. Dietz established a 
service between Versailles and Paris, and the same 
year M. D'Asda carried out some successful trials 
of his steam ^< diligence " under the eyes of Royalty. 
But we find that for the next thirty-five years the 
steam-carriage was not much improved, owing to 
want of capital among its French admirers. No 
Gurney appeared, ready to spend his thousands in 
experimenting ; also, though the law left road loco- 
motion unrestricted, the railways offered a determined 
opposition to a possibly dangerous rival. So that, 
on the whole, road transport by steam fared badly 
till after the terrible Franco- Prussian war, when 
inventors again took courage. M. Bolide, of Mans, 
built in 1873 a car, ^< TObeissante," which ran from 
Mans to Paris ; and became the subject of allusions 
in popular songs and plays, while its name was held 
up as an example to the Paris ladies. Three years 
later he constructed a steam omnibus to carry fifty 
persons, and in 1878 exhibited a car that journeyed 

232 



Horseless Carriages 

at the rate of eighteen miles an hour from Paris to 
Vienna, where it aroused great admiration. 

After the year 1880 French engineers divided 
their attention betv/een the heavy motor omnibus 
and light vehicles for pleasure parties. In 1884 
MM. Bouton and Trepardoux, working conjointly 
with the Comte de Dion, produced a steam-driven 
tricycle, and in 1887 M. Serpollet followed suit with 
another, fitted with the peculiar form of steam 
generator that bears his name. Then came in 1890 
a very important innovation, which has made auto- 
mobilism what it now is. Gottlieb Daimler, a 
German engineer, introduced the petrol gas-motor. 
Its comparative lightness and simplicity at once 
stamped it as the thing for which makers were wait- 
ing. Petrol-driven vehicles were soon abroad in 
considerable numbers and varieties, but they did not 
attract public attention to any great extent until, in 
1894, M. Pierre Giffard, an editor of the Petit Journal y 
organised a motor race from Paris to Rouen. The 
proprietors of the paper offered handsome prizes to 
the successful competitors. There were ten starters, 
some on steam, others on petrol cars. The race 
showed that, so far as stability went, Daimler's engine 
was the equal of the steam cylinder. The next year 
another race of a more ambitious character was 
held, the course being from Paris to Bordeaux and 
back. Subscriptions for prizes flowed in freely. 
Serpollet, de Dion, and Bollee prepared steam cars 
that should win back for steam its lost supremacy, 

233 



Romance of Modern Invention 

while the petrol faction secretly built motors of a 
strength to relegate steam once and for all to a back 
place. Electricity, too, made a bid unsuccessfully 
for the prize in the Jeantaud car, a special train 
being engaged in advance to distribute charged 
accumulators over the route. The steamers broke 
down soon after the start, so that the petrol cars 
" walked over " and won a most decisive victory. 

The interest roused in the race led the Comte de 
Dion to found the Automobile Club of France, which 
drew together all the enthusiastic admirers of the 
new locomotion. Automobilism now became a 
sport, a craze. The French, with their fine straight 
roads, and a not too deeply ingrained love of horse- 
flesh, gladly welcomed the flying car, despite its noisy 
and malodorous properties. 

Orders flowed in so freely that the motor makers 
could not keep pace with the demand, or promise 
delivery within eighteen months. Rich men were 
therefore obliged to pay double prices if they could 
find any one willing to sell — a state of things that 
remains unto this day with certain makes of French 
cars. Poorer folks contented themselves with De 
Dion motor tricycles, which showed up so well in 
the 1896 Paris-Marseilles race ; or with the neat 
little three-wheeled cars of M. Bollee. Motor racing 
became the topic of the hour. Journals were started 
for the sole purpose of recording the doings of 
motorists ; and few newspapers of any popularity 
omitted a special column of motor news. Successive 

234 



Horseless Carriages 

contests on the highroads at increasing speeds 
attracted increased interest. The black-goggled, 
fur-clad chauffeur who carried off the prizes found 
himself a hero. 

In short, the hold which automobilism has over 
our neighbours may be gauged from the fact that in 
1 90 1 it was estimated that nearly a thousand motor 
cars assembled to see the sport on the Longchamps 
Course (the scene of that ultra-" horsey " event, the 
Grand Prix), and the real interest of the meet did not 
centre round horses of flesh and blood. 

The French have not a monopoly of devotion to 
automobilism. The speedy motor car is too much 
in accord with the bustling spirit of the age ; its 
delights too easily appreciated to be confined to one 
country. Allowing France the first place, America, 
Germany, and Belgium are not far behind in their 
addiction to the '^ sport," and even in Britain, par- 
tially freed since 1896 from the red-flag tyranny, 
thanks to the efforts of Sir David Salomons, there 
are most visible signs that the era of the horse is 
beginning its end. 

-^ Types of Car. 

Automobiles may be classified according to the 
purpose they serve, according to their size and 
weight, or according to their motive power. We 
will first review them under the latter head. 

A, Petrol. — The petrol motor, suitable alike for 
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Romance of Modern Invention 

large cars of 40 to 60 horse-power and for the 
small bicycle weighing 70 lbs. or so, at present 
undoubtedly occupies the first place in popular 
estimation on account of its comparative simplicity, 
which more than compensates certain defects that 
affect persons off the vehicle more than those on 
it — smell and noise. 

The chief feature of the internal explosion motor 
is that at one operation it converts fuel directly into 
energy, by exploding it inside a cylinder. It is 
herein more economical than steam, which loses 
power while passing from the boiler to the driving- 
gear. 

Petrol cycles and small cars have usually only 
one cylinder, but large vehicles carry two, three, and 
sometimes four cylinders. Four and more avoid 
that bugbear of rotary motion, ^' dead points," during 
which the momentum of the machinery alone is 
doing work ; and for that reason the engines of 
racing cars are often quadrupled. 

For the sake of simplicity we will describe the 
working of a single cylinder, leaving the reader to 
imagine it acting alone or in concert with others as 
he pleases. 

In the first place the fuel, petrol, is a very inflam- 
mable distillation of petroleum : so ready to ignite that 
it must be most rigorously guarded from naked lights ; 
so quick to evaporate that the receptacles containing 
it, if not quite airtight, will soon render it ^* stale " 
and unprofitable for motor driving. 

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Horseless Carriages 

The engine, to mention its most important parts, 
consists of a single-action cylinder (giving a thrust 
one way only) ; a heavy flywheel revolving in an 
airtight circular case, and connected to the piston by 
a hinged rod which converts the reciprocating move- 
ment of the piston into a rotary movement of the 
crank-shaft built in with the wheel ; inlet and outlet 
valves ; a carburettor for generating petrol gas, and 
a device to ignite the gas-and-air mixture in the 
cylinder. 

The action of the engine is as follows : as the 
piston moves outwards in its first stroke it sucks 
through the inlet valve a quantity of mixed air and 
gas, the proportions of which are regulated by special 
taps. The stroke ended, the piston returns, com- 
pressing the mixture and rendering it more com- 
bustible. Just as the piston commences its second 
outward stroke an electric spark passed through the 
mixture mechanically ignites it, and creates an ex- 
plosion, which drives the piston violently forwards. 
The second return forces the burnt gas through the 
exhaust-valve, which is lifted by cog-gear once in 
every two revolutions of the crank, into the 
"silencer." The cycle of operations is then re- 
peated. 

We see that during three-quarters of the " cycle " 
— the suction, compression, and expulsion — the work 
is performed entirely by the flywheel. It follows 
that a single-cylinder motor, to work at all, must 
rotate the wheel at a high rate. Once stopped, it 

237 



Romance of Modern Invention 

can be restarted only by the action of the handle 
or pedals ; a task often so unpleasant and laborious 
that the driver of a car, when he comes to rest for a 
short time only, disconnects his motor from the 
driving-gear and lets it throb away idly beneath him. 

The means of igniting the gas in the cylinders 
may be either a Bunsen burner or an electric spark. 
Tube ignition is generally considered inferior to 
electrical because it does not permit "timing" of 
the explosion. Large cars are often fitted with both 
systems, so as to have one in reserve should the 
other break down. 

Electrical ignition is most commonly produced by 
the aid of an intensity coil, which consists of an 
inner core of coarse insulated wire, called the 
primary coil ; and an outer, or secondary coil, of 
very fine wire. A current passes at intervals, timed 
by a cam on the exhaust-valve gear working a 
make-and-break contact blade, from an accumulator 
through the primary coil, exciting by induction a 
current of much greater intensity in the secondary. 
The secondary is connected to a " sparking plug," 
which screws into the end of the cylinder, and 
carries two platinum points about ^V of an inch 
apart. The secondary current leaps this little gap 
in the circuit, and the spark, being intensely hot, 
fires the compressed gas. Instead of accumulators 
a small dynamo, driven by the motor, is sometimes 
used to produce the primary current. 

By moving a small lever, known as the " advancing 
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Horseless Carriages 

lever/' the driver can control the time of explosion 
relatively to the compression of the gas, and raise 
or lower the speed of the motor. 

The strokes of the petrol-driven cylinder are very 
rapid, varying from looo to 3000 a minute. The 
heat of very frequent explosions would soon make 
the cylinder too hot to work were not measures 
adopted to keep it cool. Small cylinders, such as 
are carried on motor cycles, are sufficiently cooled 
by a number of radiating ribs cast in a piece with 
the cylinder itself ; but for large machines a water 
jacket or tank surrounding the cylinder is a necessity. 
Water is circulated through the jacket by means of 
a small centrifugal pump working off the driving 
gear, and through a coil of pipes fixed in the front 
of the car to catch the draught of progression. So 
long as the jacket and tubes are full of water the 
temperature of the cylinder cannot rise above boiling 
point. 

Motion is transmitted from the motor to the 
driving-wheels by intermediate gear, which in cycles 
may be only a leather band or couple of cogs, but 
in cars is more or less complicated. Under the 
body of the car, running usually across it, is the 
::ountershaft, fitted at each end with a small cog 
which drives a chain passing also over much larger 
:ogs fixed to the driving-wheels. The countershaft 
engages with the cylinder mechanism by a "friction- 
clutch," a couple of circular faces which can be 
pressed against one another by a lever. To start 

239 



Romance of Modem Invention 

his car the driver allows the motor to obtain a 
considerable momentum, and then, using the fric- 
tion lever, brings more and more stress on to the 
countershaft until the friction-clutch overcomes the 
inertia of the car and produces movement. 

Gearing suitable for level stretches would not be 
sufficiently powerful for hills : the motor would slow 
and probably stop from want of momentum. A car 
is therefore fitted with changing gears, which give 
two or three speeds, the lower for ascents, the higher 
for the level : and on declines the friction-clutch can 
be released, allowing the car to ^' coast." 

B, Steam Cars. — Though the petrol car has come 
to the front of late years it still has a powerful rival 
in the steam car. Inventors have made strenuous 
efforts to provide steam-engines light enough to be 
suitable for small pleasure cars. At present the 
Locomobile (American) and Serpollet (French) 
systems are increasing their popularity. The Loco- 
mobile, the cost of which (about ;£i2o) contrasts 
favourably with that of even the cheaper petrol cars, 
has a small multitubular boiler wound on the outside 
with two or three layers of piano wire, to render it 
safe at high pressures. As the boiler is placed under 
the seat it is only fit and proper that it should have 
a large margin of safety. The fuel, petrol, is passed 
through a specially designed burner, pierced with 
hundreds of fine holes arranged in circles round air 
inlets. The feed-supply to the burner is governed 
by a spring valve, which cuts off the petrol auto- 

240 



Horseless Carriages 

matically as soon as the steam in the boiler reaches 
a certain pressure. The locomobile runs very 
evenly and smoothly, and with very little noise, a 
welcome change after the very audible explosion 
motor. 

The Serpollet system is a peculiar method of 
generating steam. The boiler is merely a long coil 
of tubing, into which a small jet of water is squirted 
by a pump at every stroke of the cylinders. The 
steam is generated and used in a moment, and the 
speed of the machine is regulated by the amount of 
water thrown by the pumps. By an ingenious 
device the fuel supply is controlled in combination 
with the water supply, so that there may not be any 
undue waste in the burner. 

C. Electricity. — Of electric cars there are many 
patterns, but at present they are not commercially 
so practical as the other two types. The great 
drawbacks to electrically-driven cars are the weight 
of the accumulators (which often scale nearly as 
much as all the rest of the vehicle), and the difficulty 
of getting them recharged when exhausted. We 
might add to these the rapidity with which the 
accumulators become worn out, and the consequent 
expense of renewal. T. A. Edison is reported at 
work on an accumulator which will surpass all 
hitherto constructed, having a much longer life, and 
weighing very much less, power for power. The 
longest continuous run ever made with electricity, 
187 miles at Chicago, compares badly with the feat 

241 Q 



Romance of Modern Invention 

of a petrol car which on November 23, 1900, 
travelled a thousand miles on the Crystal Palace track 
in 48 hours 24 minutes, without a single stop. 
Successful attempts have been made by MM. 
Pieper and Jenatsky to combine the petrol and 
electric systems, by an arrangement which instead of 
wasting power in the cylinders when less speed is 
required, throws into action electric dynamos to 
store up energy, convertible, when needed, into 
motive power by reversing the dynamo into a 
motor. But the simple electric car will not be a 
universal favourite until either accumulators are so 
light that a very large store of electricity can be 
carried without inconvenient addition of weight, or 
until charging stations are erected all over the 
country at distances of fifty miles or so apart. 

Whether steam will eventually get the upper hand 
of the petrol engine is at present uncertain. The 
steam car has the advantage over the gas-engine car 
in ease of starting, the delicate regulation of power, 
facility of reversing, absence of vibration, noise and 
smell, and freedom from complicated gears. On the 
other hand the petrol car has no boiler to get out of 
order or burst, no troublesome gauges requiring 
constant attention, and there is small difficulty about 
a supply of fuel. Petrol sufficient to give motive 
power for hundreds of miles can be carried if need 
be ; and as long as there is petrol on board the car 
is ready for work at a moment's notice. Judging by 
the number of the various types of vehicles actually 

242 




/F 



% '=^- 



Horseless Carriages 

at work we should say that while steam is best for 
heavy traction, the gas-engine is most often employed 
on pleasure cars. 

D, Liquid Air will also have to be reckoned with 
as a motive power. At present it is only on its 
probation ; but the writer has good authority for 
stating that before these words appear in print there 
will be on the roads a car driven by liquid air, and 
able to turn off eighty miles in the hour. 

Manufacture, — As the English were the pioneers of 
the steam car, so are the Germans and French the 
chief manufacturers of the petrol car. While the 
hands of English manufacturers were tied by short- 
sighted legislation, continental nations were inventing 
and controlling valuable patents, so that even now 
our manufacturers are greatly handicapped. Large 
numbers of petrol cars are imported annually from 
France, Germany, and Belgium. Steam cars come 
chiefly from America and France. The former 
country sent us nearly 2000 vehicles in 1901. There 
are signs, however, that English engineers mean to 
make a determined effort to recover lost ground ; 
and it is satisfactory to learn that in heavy steam 
vehicles, such as are turned out by Thorneycroft 
and Co., this country holds the lead. We will 
hope that in a few years we shall be exporters in 
turn. 

Having glanced at the history and nature of the 
various types of car, it will be interesting to turn to 
a consideration of their travelling capacities. As we 

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Romance of Modern Invention 

have seen, a steam omnibus attained; in 1830, a speed 
of no less than thirty-five miles an hour on what we 
should call bad roads. It is therefore to be expected 
that on good modern roads the latest types of car would 
be able to eclipse the records of seventy years ago. 
That such has indeed been the case is evident when 
we examine the performances of cars in races 
organised as tests of speed. France, with its straight, 
beautifully-kept, military roads, is the country par 
excellence for the chauffeur. One has only to glance at 
the map to see how the main highways conform to 
Euclid's dictum that a straight line is the shortest 
distance between any two points, e.g. between Rouen 
and Dieppe, where a park of artillery, well posted, 
could rake the road either way for miles. 

The growth of speed in the French races is re- 
markable. In 1894 the winning car ran at a mean 
velocity of thirteen miles an hour ; in 1895, of fifteen. 
The year 1898 witnessed a great advance to twenty- 
three miles, and the next year to thirty miles. But all 
these speeds paled before that of the Paris to Bordeaux 
race of 1 901, in which the winner, M. Fournier, 
traversed the distance of 3 27 J miles at a rate of 53! 
miles per hour ! The famous Sud express, running 
between the same cities, and considered the fastest 
long-distance express in the world, was beaten by a 
full hour. It is interesting to note that in the same 
races a motor bicycle, a Werner, weighing 80 lbs. 
or less, successfully accomplished the course at an 
average rate of nearly thirty miles an hour. The 

244 



Horseless Carriages 

motor-car, after waiting seventy years, had had its 
revenge on the railways. 

This was not the only occasion on which an 
express service showed up badly against its nimble 
rival of the roads. In June, 1901, the French and 
German authorities forgot old animosities in a 
common enthusiasm for the automobile, and orga- 
nised a race between Paris and Berlin. It was to be 
a big affair, in which the cars of all nations should 
fight for the speed championship. Every possible 
precaution was taken to insure the safety of the 
competitors and the spectators. Flags of various 
colours and placards marked out the course, which 
lay through Rheims, Luxembourg, Coblentz, Frank- 
furt, Eisenach, Leipsic, and Potsdam to the German 
capital. About fifty towns and large villages were 
*' neutralised " — that is to say, the competitors had to 
consume a certain time in traversing them. At the 
entrance to each neutralised zone a ^^ control " was 
established. As soon as a competitor arrived, he 
must slow down, and a card on which was written 
the time of his arrival was handed to a " pilot," who 
cycled in front of the car to the other " control " at 
the farther end of the zone, from which, when the 
proper time had elapsed, the car was dismissed. 
Among other rules were : that no car should be 
pushed or pulled during the race by any one else than 
the passengers ; that at the end of the day only a 
certain time should be allowed for cleaning and 
repairs ; and that a limited number of persons, vary- 

245 



Romance of Modern Invention 

ing with the size of the car, should be permitted to 
handle it during that period. 

A small army of automobile club representatives, 
besides thousands of police and soldiers, were dis- 
tributed along the course to restrain the crowds of 
spectators. It was absolutely imperative that for 
vehicles propelled at a rate of from 50 to 60 miles 
an hour a clear path should be kept. 

At dawn, on July 27th, 109 racing machines 
assembled at the Fort de Champigny, outside Paris, 
in readiness to start for Berlin. Just before half- 
past three, the first competitor received the signal ; 
two minutes later the second ; and then at short 
intervals for three hours the remaining 107, among 
whom was one lady, Mme. de Gast. At least 20,000 
persons were present, even at that early hour, to give 
the racers a hearty farewell, and demonstrate the 
interest attaching in France to all things connected 
with automobihsm. 

Great excitement prevailed in Paris during the 
three days of the race. Every few minutes telegrams 
arrived from posts on the route telling how the 
competitors fared. The news showed that during 
the first stage at least a hard fight for the leading 
place was in progress. The French cracks, Four- 
nier, Charron, De Knyff, Farman, and Girardot 
pressed hard on Hourgi^res, No. 2 at the starting- 
point. Fournier soon secured the lead, and those 
who remembered his remarkable driving in the Paris- 
Bordeaux race at once selected him as the winner. 

246 




^' Ci 



Horseless Carriages 

Aix-la-Chapelle, 283 miles from Paris and the end 
of the first stage, was reached in 6 hours 28 minutes. 
Fournier first, De Knyff second by six minutes. 

On the 28th the racing became furious. Several 
accidents occurred. Edge, driving the only English 
car, wrecked his machine on a culvert, the sharp 
curve of which flung the car into the air and broke 
its springs. Another ruined his chances by running 
over and killing a boy. But Fournier, Antony, De 
Knyff, and Girardot managed to avoid mishaps for 
that day, and covered the ground at a tremendous 
pace. At Dusseldorf Girardot won the lead from 
Fournier, to lose it again shortly. Antony, driving 
at a reckless speed, gained ground all day, and 
arrived a close second at Hanover, the halting-place, 
after a run averaging, in spite of bad roads and 
dangerous corners, no less than 54 miles an hour I 

The chauffeur in such a race must indeed be a man 
of iron nerves. Through the great black goggles 
which shelter his face from the dust-laden hurricane 
set up by the speed he travels at he must keep a 
perpetual, piercingly keen watch. Though travelling 
at express speed, there are no signals to help him ; 
he must be his own signalman as well as driver. 
He must mark every loose stone on the road, every 
inequality, every sudden rise or depression ; he must 
calculate the curves at the corners and judge whether 
his mechanician, hanging out on the inward side, 
will enable a car to round a turn without slackening 
speed. His calculations and decisions must be made 

247 



Romance of Modern Invention 

in the fraction of a second, for a moment's hesita- 
tion might be disaster. His driving must be furious 
and not reckless ; the timid chauffeur will never win, 
the careless one will probably lose. His head must be 
cool although the car leaps beneath him like a wild 
thing, and the wind lashes his face. At least one 
well-tried driver found the mere mental strain too 
great to bear, and retired from the contest ; and we 
may be sure that few of the competitors slept much 
during the nights of the race. 

At four o'clock on the 29th Fournier started on 
the third stage, which witnessed another bout of fast 
travelHng. It was now a struggle between him and 
Antony for first place. The pace rose at times to 
eighty miles an hour, a speed at which our fastest 
expresses seldom travel. Such a speed means huge 
risks, for stopping, even with the powerful brakes 
fitted to the large cars, would be a matter of a 
hundred yards or more. Not far from Hanover 
Antony met with an accident — Girardot now held 
second place ; and Fournier finished an easy first. 
All along the route crowds had cheered him, and 
hurled bouquets into the car, and wished him good 
speed ; but in Berlin the assembled populace went 
nearly frantic at his appearance. Fournier was 
overwhelmed with flowers, laurel wreaths, and other 
offerings ; dukes, duchesses, and the great people 
of the land pressed for presentations ; he was the 
hero of the hour. 

Thus ended what may be termed a peaceful inva- 
248 



Horseless Carriages 



sion of Germany by the French. Among other 
things it had shown that over an immense stretch 
of country^ over roads in places bad as only German 
roads can be, the automobile was able to maintain 
an average speed superior to that of the express 
trains running between Paris and Berlin ; also that, 
in spite of the large number of cars employed in the 
race, the accidents to the pubHc were a negligible 
quantity. It should be mentioned that the actual 
time occupied by Fournier was i6 hours 5 minutes ; 
that out of the 109 starters 47 reached BerHn ; and 
that Osmont on a motor cycle finished only 3 hours 
and 10 minutes behind the winner. 

In England such racing would be undesirable and 
impossible, owing to the crookedness of our roads. 
It would certainly not be permissible so long as the 
12 miles an hour limit is observed. At the present 
time an agitation is on foot against this restriction, 
which, though reasonable enough among traffic and 
in towns, appears unjustifiable in open country. To 
help to convince the magisterial mind of the ease 
with which a car can be stopped, and therefore of its 
safety even at comparatively high speeds, trials were 
held on January 2, 1902, in Welbeck Park. The 
results showed that a car travelling at 13 miles an 
hour could be stopped dead in 4 yards ; at 18 miles 
in 7 yards ; at 20 miles in 13 yards ; or in less than 
half the distance required to pull up a horse-vehicle 
driven at similar speeds. 

Uses. — Ninety-five per cent of motors, at least in 
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Romance of Modern Invention 

England, are attached to pleasure vehicles, cycles, 
voiturettes, and large cars. On account of the 
costliness of cars motorists are far less numerous 
than cyclists ; but those people whose means enable 
them to indulge in automobilism find it extremely 
fascinating. Caricaturists have presented to us in 
plenty the gloomier incidents of motoring — the 
broken chain, the burst tyre, the "something gone 
wrong." It requires personal experience to under- 
stand how lightly these mishaps weigh against the 
exhilaration of movement, the rapid change of scene, 
the sensation of control over power which can whirl 
one along tirelessly at a pace altogether beyond the 
capacities of horseflesh. If proof were wanted of 
the motor car's popularity it will be seen in the 
unconventional dress of the chauffeur. The breeze 
set up by his rapid rush is such as would penetrate 
ordinary clothing ; he dons cumbrous fur cloaks. 
The dust is all-pervading at times ; he swathes 
himself in dust-proof overalls, and mounts large 
goggles edged with velvet, while a cap of semi- 
nautical cut tightly drawn down over neck and ears 
serves to protect those portions of his anatomy. 
The general effect is peculiarly unpicturesque ; but 
even the most artistically-minded driver is ready 
to sacrifice appearances to comfort and the proper 
enjoyment of his car. 

In England the great grievance of motorists arises 
from the speed limit imposed by law. To restrict a 
powerful car to twelve miles an hour is like con- 

250 



Horseless Carriages 

fining a thoroughbred to the paces of a broken-down 
cab horse. Careless driving is unpardonable, but its 
occasional existence scarcely justifies the intolerant 
attitude of the law towards motorists in general. It 
must, however, be granted in justice to the police that 
the chauffeur^ from constant transgression of the law, 
becomes a bad judge of speed, and often travels at a 
far greater velocity than he is willing to admit. 

The convenience of the motor car for many pur- 
poses is immense, especially for cross-country jour- 
neys, which may be made from door to door without 
the monotony or indirectness of railway travel. It 
bears the doctor swiftly on his rounds. It carries 
the business man from his country house to his 
office. It delivers goods for the merchant ; parcels 
for the post office. 

In the warfare of the future, too, it will play its 
part, whether to drag heavy ordnance and stores, or 
to move commanding officers from point to point, or 
perform errands of mercy among the wounded. By 
the courtesy of the Locomobile Company we are 
permitted to append the testimony of Captain R. S. 
Walker, R.E., to the usefulness of a car during the 
great Boer War. 

^^ Several months ago I noticed a locomobile car 
at Cape Town, and being struck with its simplicity 
and neatness, bought it and took it up country with 
me, with a view to making some tests with it over 
bad roads, &c. Its first trip was over a rough 
course round Pretoria, especially chosen to find out 

251 



Romance of Modern Invention 

defects before taking it into regular use. Naturally, 
as the machine was not designed for this class of 
work, there were several. In about a month these 
had all been found out and remedied, and the car 
was in constant use, taking stores, &c., round the 
towns and forts. It also performed some very 
useful work in visiting out-stations, where search- 
lights were either installed or wanted, and in this 
way visited nearly all the bigger towns in the Trans- 
vaal. It was possible to go round all the likely 
positions for a searchlight in one day at every 
station, which frequently meant considerably over 
fifty miles of most indifferent roads — more than a 
single horse could have been expected to do — and 
the car generally carried two persons on these occa- 
sions. The car was also used as a tender to a 
searchlight plant, on a gun-carriage and limber, 
being utilised to fetch gasolene, carbons, water, &c. 
&c., and also to run the dynamo for charging the 
accumulators used for sparking, thus saving running 
the gasolene motor for this purpose. To do this the 
trail of the carriage, on which was the dynamo, was 
lowered on to the ground, the back of the car was 
pulled up, one wheel being supported on the dynamo 
pulley and the other clear of the ground, and two 
bolts were passed through the balance-gear to join 
it. On one occasion the car ran a 30 cm. search- 
light for an hour, driving a dynamo in this way. 
In consequence of this a trailer has been made to 
carry a dynamo and projector for searchlighting 

252 



Horseless Carriages 

in the field, but so far this has not been so used. 
The trailer hooks into an eye, passing just behind 
the balance-gear. A Maxim, Colt, or small ammuni- 
tion cart, &c., could be attached to this same eye. 

<^ Undoubtedly the best piece of work done by the 
car so far was its trial trip with the trailer, when it 
blew up the mines at Klein Nek. These mines were 
laid some eight months previously, and had never 
been looked to in the interval. There had been 
several bad storms, the Boers and cattle had been 
frequently through the Nek, it had been on fire, and 
finally it was shelled with lyddite. The mines, 
eighteen in number, were found to be intact except 
two, which presumably had been fired off by the 
heat of the veldt fire. All the insulation was burnt 
off the wires, and the battery was useless. It had 
been anticipated that a dynamo exploder would be 
inadequate to fire these mines, so a 250 volt two h.p. 
motor, which happened to be in Pretoria, weighing 
about three or four hundredweight, was placed on the 
trailer ; a quarter of a mile of insulated cable, some 
testing gear, the kits of three men and their rations 
for three days, with a case of gasolene for the car, were 
also carried on the car and trailer, and the whole 
left Pretoria one morning and trekked to Rietfontein. 
Two of us were mounted, the third drove the car. 
At Rietfontein we halted for the night, and started 
next morning with an escort through Commando 
Nek, round the north of the Magaliesburg, to near 
Klein Nek, where the road had to be left, and the 

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Romance of Modern Invention 

car taken across country through bush veldt. At 
the bottom the going was pretty easy ; only a few 
bushes had to be charged down, and the grass, &c., 
rather wound itself around the wheels and chain. 
As the rise became steeper the stones became very 
large, and the car had to be taken along very gin- 
gerly to prevent breaking the wheels. A halt was 
made about a quarter of a mile from the top of the 
Nek, where the mines were. These were recon- 
noitered, and the wire, &c., was picked up ; that 
portion which was useless was placed on top of 
the charges, and the remainder taken to the car. 
The dynamo was slid off the trailer, the car backed 
against it ; one wheel was raised slightly and placed 
against the dynamo pulley, which was held up to it 
by a man using his rifle as a lever ; the other wheel 
was on the ground with a stone under it. The 
balance gear being free, the dynamo was excited 
without the other wheel moving, and the load being 
on for a very short time (that is, from the time of 
touching lead on dynamo terminal to firing of the 
mine) no harm could come to the car. When all 
the leads had been joined to the dynamo the car 
was started, and after a short time, when it was 
judged to have excited, the second terminal was 
touched, a bang and clouds of dust resulted, and the 
Klein Nek Minefield had ceased to exist. The day 
was extremely hot, and the work had not been light, 
so the tea, made with water drawn direct from the 
boiler, which we were able to serve round to the 

254 



Horseless Carriages 

main body of our escort was much appreciated, and 
washed down the surplus rations we dispensed with 
to accommodate the battery and wire, which we 
could not leave behind for the enemy. 

" On the return journey we found this extra load 
too much for the car, and had great difficulty getting 
up to Commando Nek, frequently having to stop to 
get up steam, so these materials were left at the 
first blockhouse, and the journey home continued 
in comfort. 

^'A second night at Rietfontein gave us a rest 
after our labour, and the third afternoon saw us 
on our way back to Pretoria. As luck would 
have it, a sandstorm overtook the car, which had 
a lively time of it. The storm began by blowing 
the sole occupant's hat off, so, the two mounted 
men being a long way behind, he shut off steam 
and chased his hat. In the meantime the wind 
increased, and the car sailed off ' on its own,' 
and was only just caught in time to save a smash. 
Luckily the gale was in the right direction, for 
the fire was blown out, and it was impossible to 
light a match in the open. The car sailed into 
a poort on the outskirts of Pretoria, got a tow 
from a friendly cart through it, and then steamed 
home after the fire had been relit. 

"The load carried on this occasion (without 
the battery, &c.) must have been at least five 
hundredweight besides the driver, which, consider- 
ing the car is designed to carry two on ordinary 

255 



Romance of Modern Invention 

roads, and that these roads were by no means 
ordinary, was no mean feat. The car, as ordin- 
arily equipped for trekking, carries the following : 
Blankets, waterproof sheets, &c., for two men ; 
four planks for crossing ditches, bogs, stones, &c. ; 
all necessary tools and spare parts, a day's supply 
of gasolene, a couple of telephones, and one mile 
of wire. In addition, on the trailer, if used for 
searchlighting : One 30 cm. projector, one auto- 
matic lamp for projector, one dynamo (100 volts 
20 amperes), two short lengths of wire, two pairs 
of carbons, tools, &c. This trailer would nor- 
mally be carried with the baggage, and only 
picked up by the car when wanted as a light ; 
that is, as a rule, after arriving in camp, when a 
good many other things could be left behind." 

Perhaps the most useful work in store for the 
motor is to help relieve the congestion of our 
large towns and to restore to the country some 
of its lost prosperity. There is no stronger in- 
ducement to make people live in the country than 
rapid and safe means of locomotion, whether public ; 
or private. At present the slow and congested; 
suburban train services on some sides of London 
consume as much time as would suffice a motor 
car to cover twice or three times the distance. 
We must welcome any form of travel which vvill 
tend to restore the balance between country and 
town by enabling the worker to live far from his 
work. The gain to the health of the nation aris-i 

2;6 



Horseless Carriages 

ing from more even distribution of population 
would be inestimable. 

A world's tour is among the latest projects in 
automobilism. On April 29, 1902, Dr. Lehwess 
and nine friends started from Hyde Park Corner 
for a nine months' tour on three vehicles, the 
largest of them a luxuriously appointed 24 horse- 
power caravan, built to accommodate four persons. 
Their route lies through France, Germany, Russia, 
Siberia, China, Japan, and the United States. 



257 



HIGH-SPEED RAILWAYS 

A CENTURY ago a long journey was considered 
an exploit, and an exploit to be carried through 
as quickly as possible on account of the dangers 
of the road and the generally uncomfortable con- 
ditions of travel. To-day, though our express 
speed is many times greater than that of the 
lumbering coaches, our carriages comparatively 
luxurious, the risk practically nil, the same wish 
lurks in the breast of ninety - nine out of a 
hundred railway passengers — to spend the shortest 
time in the train that the time-table permits of. 
Time differences that to our grandfathers would 
have appeared trifling are now matters of suffi- 
cient importance to make rival railway companies 
anxious to clip a few minutes off a loo-mile 
<^run" simply because their passengers appreciate 
a few minutes' less confinement to the cars. 

During the last fifty years the highest express 
speeds have not materially altered. The Great 
Western Company in its early days ran trains from 
Paddington to Slough, i8 miles, in 15J minutes, or 
at an average pace of 69 J miles an hour. 

On turning to the present regular express services 
258 



High-Speed Railways 

of the world we find America heading the Hst 
with a 50-mile run between Atlantic City and 
Camden, covered at the average speed of 68 miles 
an hour ; Britain second with a 33-mile run be- 
tween Forfar and Perth at 59 miles; and France 
a good third with an hourly average of rather 
more than 58 miles between Les Aubrais and 
S. Pierre des Corps. These runs are longer than 
that on the Great Western Railway referred to 
above (which now occupies twenty-four minutes), 
but their average velocity is less. What is the 
cause of this decrease of speed ? Not want of 
power in modern engines ; at times our trains 
attain a rate of 80 miles an hour, and in America 
a mile has been turned off in the astonishing time 
of thirty-two seconds. We should rather seek it 
in the need for economy and in the physical limi- 
tations imposed by the present system of plate- 
laying and railroad engineering. An average speed 
of ninety miles an hour would, as things now 
stand, be too wasteful of coal and too injurious 
to the rolling-stock to yield profit to the pro- 
prietors of a line ; and, except in certain districts, 
would^prove perilous for the passengers. Before 
our services can be much improved the steam 
locomotive must be supplanted by some other 
application of motive power, and the metals be 
laid in a manner which will make special pro- 
vision for extreme speed. 

259 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Since rapid transit is as much a matter of 
commercial importance as of mere personal con- 
venience it must not be supposed that an average 
of 50 miles an hour will continue to meet the 
needs of travellers. Already practical experiments 
have been made with two systems that promise 
us an. ordinary speed of 100 miles an hour and 
an express speed considerably higher. 

One of these, the monorail or single-rail system, 
will be employed on a railroad projected between 
Manchester and Liverpool. At present passengers 
between these two cities — the first to be connected 
by a railroad of any kind — enjoy the choice of 
three rival services covering 34 J miles in three- 
quarters of an hour. An eminent engineer, Mr. 
F. B. Behr, now wishes to add a fourth of un- 
precedented swiftness. Parliamentary powers have 
been secured for a line starting from Deansgate, 
Manchester, and terminating behind the pro- 
Cathedral in Liverpool, on which single cars will 
run every ten minutes at a velocity of no miles 
an hour. 

A monorail track presents a rather curious appear- 
ance. The ordinary parallel metals are replaced by 
a single rail carried on the summit of A-shaped 
trestles, the legs of which are firmly bolted to 
sleepers. A monorail car is divided lengthwise by a 
gap that allows it to hang half on either side of the 
trestles and clear them as it moves. The double 

260 



High-Speed Railways 

flanged wheels to carry and drive the car are placed 
at the apex of the gap. As the ^^ centre of gravity " 
is below the rail the car cannot turn over, even when 
travelling round a sharp curve. 

The first railway built on this system was con- 
structed by M. Charles Lartigue, a French engineer, 
in Algeria, a district where an ordinary two-rail track 
is often blocked by severe sand-storms. He derived 
the idea of balancing trucks over an elevated rail 
from caravans of camels laden on each flank with 
large bags. The camel, or rather its legs, was trans- 
formed by the engineer's eye into iron trestles, while 
its burden became a car. A line built as a result of 
this observation, and supplied with mules as tractive 
power, has for many years played an important part 
in the esparto-grass trade of Algeria. 

In 1886 Mr. Behr decided that by applying steam 
to M. Lartigue's system he could make it successful 
as a means of transporting passengers and goods. 
He accordingly set up in Tothill Fields, Westminster, 
on the site of the new Roman Catholic Cathedral, a 
miniature railway which during nine months of use 
showed that the monorail would be practical for 
heavy traffic, safe, and more cheaply maintained than 
the ordinary double-metal railway. The train travelled 
easily round very sharp curves and climbed unusually 
steep gradients without slipping. 

Mr. Behr was encouraged to construct a monorail 
in Kerry, between Listowel, a country town famous 

261 • 



Romance of Modern Invention 

for its butter, and Ballybunion, a seaside resort of in- 
creasing popularity. The line, opened on the 28th 
of February 1888, has worked most satisfactorily 
ever since, without injury to a single employe or 
passenger. 

On each side of the trestles, two feet below the 
apex, run two guide-rails, against which press small 
wheels attached to the carriages to prevent undue 
oscillation and ^^ tipping" round curves. At the 
three stations there are, instead of points, turn-tables 
or switches on to which the train runs for trans- 
ference to sidings. 

Road traffic crosses the rail on drawbridges, which 
are very easily worked, and which automatically set 
signals against the train. The bridges are in two 
portions and act on the principle of the Tower 
Bridge, each half falling from a perpendicular 
position towards the centre, where the ends rest 
on the rail, specially strengthened at that spot to 
carry the extra weight. The locomotive is a twin 
affair ; has two boilers, two funnels, two fireboxes ; 
can draw 240 tons on the level at fifteen miles an 
hour, and when running light travels a mile in two 
minutes. The carriages, 18 feet long and carrying 
twelve passengers on each side, are divided longi- 
tudinally into two parts. Trucks too are used, 
mainly for the transport of sand — of which each 
carries three tons — from Ballybunion to Listowel : 
and in the centre of each train is a queer-looking 

262 



High-Speed Railways 

vehicle serving as a bridge for any one who may 
wish to cross from one side of the rail to the 
other. 

Several lines on the pattern of the Ballybunion- 
Listowel have been erected in different countries. 
Mr. Behr was not satisfied with his first success, 
however, and determined to develop the monorail 
in the direction of fast travelling, which he thought 
would be most easily attained on a trestle-track. In 
1893 he startled engineers by proposing a Lightning- 
Express service, to transport passengers at a velocity 
of 120 miles an hour. But the project seemed too 
ideal to tempt money from the pockets of financiers, 
and Mr. Behr soon saw that if a high-speed railway 
after his own heart were constructed it must be at 
his own expense. He had sufficient faith in his 
scheme to spend ^^40,000 on an experimental track 
at the Brussels Exhibition of 1897. The exhibition 
was in two parts, connected by an electric railway, 
the one at the capital, the other at Tervueren, seven 
miles away. Mr. Behr built his line at Tervueren. 

The greatest difficulty he encountered in its con- 
struction arose from the opposition of landowners, 
mostly small peasant proprietors, who were anxious 
to make advantageous terms before they would hear 
of the rail passing through their lands. Until he had 
concluded two hundred separate contracts, by most of 
which the peasants benefited, his platelayers could not 
get to work. Apart from this opposition the conditions 

263 



Romance of Modern Invention 

were not favourable. He was obliged to bridge no 
less than ten roads ; and the contour of the country 
necessitated steep gradients, sharp curves, long 
cuttings and embankments, the last of which, 
owing to a wet summer, could not be trusted to 
stand quite firm. The track was doubled for three 
miles, passing at each end round a curve of 1600 feet 
radius. 

The rail ran about four feet above the track on 
trestles bolted down to steel sleepers resting on 
ordinary ballast. The carriage— Mr. Behr used but 
one on this line — weighed 68 tons, was 59 feet long 
and 1 1 feet wide, and could accommodate one hun- 
dred persons. It was handsomely fitted up, and had 
specially-shaped seats which neutralised the effect of 
rounding curves, and ended fore and aft in a point, 
to overcome the wind-resistance in front and the air- 
suction behind. Sixteen pairs of wheels on the under 
side of the carriage engaged with the two pairs of 
guide rails flanking the trestles, and eight large 
double-flanged wheels, 4J feet in diameter, carried 
the weight of the vehicle. The inner four of these 
wheels were driven by as many powerful electric 
motors contained, along with the guiding mechanism, 
in the lower part of the car. The motors picked up 
current from the centre rail and from another steel 
rail laid along the sleepers on porcelain insulators. 

The top speed attained was about ninety miles an 
hour. On the close of the Exhibition special experi- 

264 



High-Speed Railways 

ments were made at the request of the Belgian, 
French; and Russian Governments, with results that 
proved that the Behr system deserved a trial on a 
much larger scale. 

The engineer accordingly approached the British 
Government with a Bill for the construction of a 
high-speed line between Liverpool and Manchester. 
A Committee of the House of Commons rejected the 
Bill on representations of the Salford Corporation. 
The Committee had to admit, nevertheless, that the 
evidence called was mainly in favour of the system ; 
and, the plans of the rail having been altered to 
meet certain objections, Parliamentary consent was 
obtained to commence operations when the necessary 
capital had been subscribed. In a few years the 
great seaport and the great cotton town will probably 
be within a few minutes' run of each other. 

A question that naturally arises in the mind of the 
reader is this : could the cars, when travelling at 1 1 o 
miles an hour, be arrested quickly enough to avoid 
an accident if anything got on the line ? 

The Westinghouse air-brake has a retarding force 
of three miles a second. It would therefore arrest a 
train travelling at no miles per hour in 37 seconds, 
or 995 yards. Mr. Behr proposes to reinforce the 
Westinghouse with an electric brake, composed of 
magnets 18 inches long, exerting on the guide rails 
by means of current generated by the reversed motors 
an attractive force of 200 lbs. per square inch. One 

265 



Romance of Modern Invention 

great advantage of this brake is that its efficiency is 
greatest when the speed of the train is highest and 
when it is most needed. The united brakes are 
expected to stop the car in half the distance of the 
Westinghouse alone ; but they would not both be 
applied except in emergencies. Under ordinary con- 
ditions the slowing of a car would take place only at 
the termini, where the line ascends gradients into the 
stations. There would, however, be small chance of 
collisions, the railway being securely fenced off 
throughout its entire length, and free from level 
crossings, drawbridges and points. Furthermore, 
each train would be its own signalman. Suppose the 
total 34I miles divided into ^' block " lengths of 7 
miles. On leaving a terminus the train sets a danger 
signal behind it ; at 7 miles it sets another, and at 
14 miles releases the first signal. So that the 
driver of a car would have at least 7 miles to slow 
down in after seeing the signals against him. In case 
of fog he would consult a miniature signal in his 
cabin working electrically in unison with the large 
semaphores. 

The Manchester-Liverpool rail will be reserved 
for express traffic only. Mr. Behr does not believe 
in mixing speeds, and considers it one of the advan- 
tages of his system that slow cars and waggons of 
the ordinary two-rail type cannot be run on the 
monorail ; because if they could managers might 
be tempted to place them there. 

266 



High-Speed Railways 

A train will consist of a single vehicle for forty, 
fifty; or seventy passengers, as the occasion requires. 
It is calculated that an average of twelve passengers 
at one penny per mile would pay all the expenses of 
running a car. 

Mr. Behr maintains that monorails can be con- 
structed far more cheaply than the two-rail, because 
they permit sharper curves, and thereby save a lot 
of cutting and embankment ; and also because the 
monorail itself, when trestles and rail are specially 
strengthened, can serve as its own bridge across 
roads, v.Jleys and rivers. 

Though the single-rail has come to the front of 
late, it must not be supposed that the two-rail track 
is for ever doomed to moderate speeds only. German 
engineers have built an electric two-rail military line 
between Berlin and Zossen, seventeen miles long, 
over which cars have been run at a hundred miles 
an hour. The line has very gradual curves, and 
in this respect is inferior to the more sinuous 
monorail. Its chief virtue is the method of apply- 
ing motive power — a method common to both 
systems. 

The steam locomotive creates its own motive force, 
and as long as it has fuel and water can act inde- 
pendently. The electric locomotive, on the other 
hand, receives its power through metallic conductors 
from some central station. Should the current fail 
all the traffic on the line is suspended. So far the 

267 



Romance of Modern Invention 

advantage rests with the steamer. But as regards 
economy the superiority of the current is obvious. 
In the electric systems under consideration — the 
monorail and Berlin-Zossen — there is less weight per 
passenger to be shifted; since a comparatively light 
motor supersedes the heavy locomotive. The cars 
running singly, bridges and track are subjected to 
less strain, and cost less to keep in repair. But the 
greatest saving of all is made in fuel. A steam loco- 
motive uses coal wastefully, sending a lot of latent 
power up the funnel in the shape of half-expanded 
steam. Want of space prevents the designer from 
fitting to a moving engine the more economical 
machinery to be found in the central power-station 
of an electric railway, which may be so situated — by 
the water-side or near a pit's mouth — that fuel can 
be brought to it at a trifling cost. Not only is the 
expense of distributing coal over the system avoided, 
but the coal itself, by the help of triple and quadruple 
expansion engines should yield two or three times as 
much energy per ton as is developed in a locomotive 
furnace. 

Many schemes are afoot for the construction of 
high-speed railways. The South-Eastern plans a 
monorail between Cannon Street and Charing Cross 
to avoid the delay that at present occurs in passing 
from one station to the other. We hear also of a 
projected railway from London to Brighton, which 
will reduce the journey to half-an-hour ; and of 

268 



High-Speed Railways 

another to connect Dover and London. It has even 
been suggested to establish monorails on existing 
tracks for fast passenger traffic, the expresses passing 
overhead, the slow and goods trains plodding along 
the double metals below. 

But the most ambitious programme of all comes 
from the land of the Czar. M. Hippolyte Romanoff, 
a Russian engineer, proposes to unite St. Petersburg 
and Moscow by a line that shall cover the interven- 
ing 600 miles in three hours — an improvement of 
ten hours on the present time-tables. He will use 
T-shaped supports to carry two rails, one on each 
arm, from which the cars are to hang. The line 
being thus double will permit the cars — some four 
hundred in number — to run to and fro continuously, 
urged on their way by current picked up from over- 
head wires. Each car is to have twelve wheels, four 
drivers arranged vertically and eight horizontally, to 
prevent derailment by gripping the rail on either 
side. The stoppage or breakdown of any car will 
automatically stop those following by cutting off the 
current. 

In the early days of railway history lines were pro- 
jected in all directions, regardless of the fact whether 
they would be of any use or not. Many of these 
lines began, where they ended, on paper. And now 
that the high-speed question has cropped up, we 
must not believe that every projected electric railway 
will be built, though of the ultimate prevalence of far 

269 



Romance of Modern Invention 

higher speeds than we now enjoy there can be no 
doubt. 

The following is a time-table drawn up on the 
two-mile-per-minute basis. 

A man leaving London at lo A.M. would reach — 

. 50 miles away, at 10.25 ^^^' 
. 60 „ „ 10.30 A.M. 

. 113 „ „ 10.57 A.M. 



Brighton . 

Portsmouth 

Birmingham 

Leeds . . 

Liverpool 

Holyhead 

Edinburgh 

Aberdeen 



. 188 „ „ 11.34 A.M. 

. 202 „ ,, 1 1. 41 A.M. 

. 262 J, „ 12. II P.M. 

. 400 „ ,j 1.20 P.M. 

. 540 „ „ 2.30 P.M. 



What would become of the records established in the 
** Race to the North " and by American ^' fliers " ? 

And what about continental travel ? 

Assuming that the Channel Tunnel is built — per- 
haps a rather large assumption — Paris will be at our 
very doors. A commercial traveller will step into 
the lightning express at London, sleep for two hours 
and twenty-four minutes and wake, refreshed, to find 
the blue-smocked Paris porters bawling in his ear. 
Or even if we prefer to keep the ^^ little silver streak " 
free from subterranean burrows, he will be able to 
catch the swift turbine steamers — of which more 
anon — at Dover, slip across to Calais in half-an-hour, 
and be at the French capital within four hours of 
quitting London. And if M. Romanoff's standard 
be reached, the latest thing in hats despatched from 

270 



High-Speed Railways 

Paris at noon may be worn in Regent Street before 
two o'clock. 

Such speeds would indeed produce a revolution in 
travelling comparable to the substitution of the steam 
locomotive for the stage coach. As has been pithily 
said, the effect of steam was to make the bulk of 
population travel, whereas they had never travelled 
before, but the effect of the electric railway will be 
to make those who travel travel much further and 
much oftener. 



271 



SEA EXPRESSES. 

In the year 1836 the Sirius, a paddle-wheel vessel, 
crossed the Atlantic from Cork Harbour to New 
York in nineteen days. Contrast with the first 
steam-passage from the Old World to the New a 
return journey of the Deufschlandj a North German 
liner, which in 1900 averaged over twenty-seven 
miles an hour between Sandy Hook and Plymouth, 
accomplishing the whole distance in the record time 
of five days seven hours thirty-eight minutes. 

This growth of speed is even more remarkable 
than might appear from the mere comparison of 
figures. A body moving through water is so re- 
tarded by the inertia and friction of the fluid that to 
quicken its pace a force quite out of proportion to 
the increase of velocity must be exerted. The pro- 
portion cannot be reduced to an exact formula, but 
under certain conditions the speed and the power 
required advance in the ratio of their cubes ; that is, 
to double a given rate of progress eight times the 
driving-power is needed ; to treble it, twenty-seven 
times. 

The mechanism of our fast modern vessels is in 
every way as superior to that which moved the 

272 



Sea Expresses 

Smus, as the beautifully-adjusted safety cycle is to 
the clumsy ^' boneshaker " which passed for a wonder 
among our grandfathers. A great improvement has 
also taken place in the art of building ships on lines 
calculated to offer least resistance to the water, and 
at the same time afford a good carrying capacity. 
The big liner, with its knife-edged bow and tapering 
hull, is by its shape alone eloquent of the high speed 
which has earned it the title of Ocean Greyhound ; 
and as for the fastest craft of all, torpedo-destroyers, 
their designers seem to have kept in mind Euclid's 
definition of a Hne- length without breadth. But 
whatever its shape, boat or ship may not shake itself 
free of Nature's laws. Her restraining hand lies 
heavy upon it. A single man paddles his weight- 
carrying dinghy along easily at four miles an hour ; 
eight men in the pink of condition, after arduous 
training, cannot urge their light, slender, racing shell 
more than twelve miles in the same time. 

To understand how mail boats and ^^ destroyers " 
attain, despite the enormous resistance of water, 
velocities that would shame many a train-service, 
we have only to visit the stokeholds and engine- 
rooms of our sea expresses and note the many 
devices of marine engineers by which fuel is con- 
verted into speed. 

We enter the stokehold through air-locks, closing 
one door before we can open the other, and find 
ourselves among sweating, grimy men, stripped to 

273 S 



Romance of Modern Invention 

the waist. As though life itself depended upon it 
they shovel coal into the rapacious maws of furnaces 
glowing with a dazzling glare under the "forced- 
draught " sent down into the hold by the fans 
whirling overhead. The ignited furnace gases on 
their way to the outer air surrender a portion of 
their heat to the water from which they are separated 
by a skin of steel. Two kinds of marine boiler are 
used — the fire-tube and the water-tube. In fire-tube 
boilers the fire passes inside the tubes and the water 
outside ; in water-tube boilers the reverse is the case, 
the crown and sides of the furnace being composed 
of sheaves of small parallel pipes through which 
water circulates. The latter type, as generating 
steam very quickly, and being able to bear very high 
pressures, is most often found in war vessels of all 
kinds. The quality sought in boiler construction is 
that the heating surface should be very large in pro- 
portion to the quantity of water to be heated. Special 
coal, anthracite or Welsh, is used in the navy on 
account of its great heating power and freedom from 
smoke ; experiments have also been made with crude 
petroleum, or liquid fuel, which can be more quickly 
put on board than coal, requires the services of fewer 
stokers, and may be stored in odd corners unavailable 
as coal bunkers. 

From the boiler the steam passes to the engine- 
room, whither we will follow it. We are now in a 
bewildering maze of clanking, whirling machinery ; 

274 



Sea Expresses 



our noses offended by the reek of oil, our ears 
deafened by the uproar of the moving metal, our eyes 
wearied by the efforts to follow the motions of the 
cranks and rods. 

On either side of us is ranged a series of three or 
perhaps even four cylinders, of increasing size. The 
smallest, known as the high-pressure cylinder, receives 
steam direct from the boiler. It takes in through a 
slide-valve a supply for a stroke ; its piston is driven 
from end to end ; the piston-rod flies through the 
cylinder-end and transmits a rotary motion to a 
crank by means of a connecting-rod. The half- 
expanded steam is then ejected, not into the air as 
would happen on a locomotive, but into the next 
cylinder, which has a larger piston to compensate the 
reduction of pressure. Number two served, the 
steam does duty a third time in number three, 
and perhaps yet a fourth time before it reaches the 
condensers, where its sudden conversion into water 
by cold produces a vacuum suction in the last 
cyUnder of the series. The secret of a marine 
engine's strength and economy lies then in its treat- 
ment of the steam, which, Hke clothes in a numerous 
family, is not thought to have served its purpose till 
it has been used over and over again. 

Reciprocating {t.e. cylinder) engines, though 
brought to a high pitch of efficiency, have grave 
disadvantages, the greatest among which is the an- 
noyance caused by their intense vibr?tion to all 

275 



Romance ot Modern Invention 

persons in the vessel. A revolving body that is 
not exactly balanced runs unequally, and transmits 
a tremor to anything with which it may be in 
contact. Turn a cycle upside down and revolve 
the driving-wheel rapidly by means of the pedal. 
The whole machine soon begins to tremble violently, 
and dance up and down on the saddle springs, 
because one part of the wheel is heavier than the 
rest, the mere weight of the air-valve being sufficient 
to disturb the balance. Now consider what happens 
in the engine-room of high-powered vessels. On 
destroyers the screws make 400 revolutions a minute. 
That is to say, all the momentum of the pistons, 
cranks, rods, and valves (weighing tons), has to be 
arrested thirteen or fourteen times every second. 
However well the moving parts may be balanced, 
the vibration is felt from stem to stern of the vessel. 
Even on luxuriously-appointed liners, with engines 
running at a far slower speed, the throbbing of the 
screw {i.e. engines) is only too noticeable and pro- 
ductive of discomfort. 

We shall be told, perhaps, that vibration is a 
necessary consequence of speed. This is true enough 
of all vehicles, such as railway trains, motor-cars, 
cycles, which are shaken by the irregularities of the 
unyielding surface over which they run, but does 
not apply universally to ships and boats. A sail or 
oar-propelled craft may be entirely free from vibration, 
whatever its speed, as the motions arising from water 

276 



Sea Expresses 

are usually slow and deliberate. In fact, water in 
its calmer moods is an ideal medium to travel on, 
and the trouble begins only with the introduction 
of steam as motive force. 

But even steam may be robbed of its power to 
annoy us. The steam-turbine has arrived. It works 
a screw propeller as smoothly as a dynamo, and at 
a speed that no cylinder engine could maintain for 
a minute without shaking itself to pieces. 

The steam-turbine is most closely connected with 
the name of the Hon. Charles Parsons, son of Lord 
Rosse, the famous astronomer. He was the first 
to show, in his speedy little Turbiniay the possibilities 
of the turbine when applied to steam navigation. 
The results have been such as to attract the attention 
of the whole shipbuilding world. 

The principle of the turbine is seen in the ordinary 
windmill. To an axle revolving in a stationary 
bearing are attached vanes which oppose a current 
of air, water, or steam, at an angle to its course, 
and by it are moved sideways through a circular path. 
Mr. Parsons' turbine has of course been specially 
adapted for the action of steam. It consists of a 
cylindrical, air-tight chest, inside which rotates a 
drum, fitted round its circumference with rows of 
curved vanes. The chest itself has fixed immovably 
to its inner side a corresponding number of vane 
rings, alternating with those on the drum, and so 
arranged as to deflect the steam on to the latter at 

277 



Romance of Modern Invention 

the most efficient angle. The diameter of the chest 
and drum is not constant, but increases towards the 
exhaust end, in order to give the expanding and 
weakening steam a larger leverage as it proceeds. 

The steam entering the chest from the boiler at 
a pressure of some hundreds of pounds to the square 
inch strikes the first set of vanes on the drum, passes 
them and meets the first set of chest-vanes, is turned 
from its course on to the second set of drum-vanes, 
and so on to the other end of the chest. Its power 
arises entirely from its expansive velocity, which, 
rather than turn a number of sharp corners, will, 
if possible, compel the obstruction to move out of 
its way. If that obstruction be from any cause 
difficult to stir, the steam must pass round it until 
its pressure overcomes the inertia. Consequently 
the turbine differs from the cylinder engine in this 
respect, that steam can pass through and be wasted 
without doing any work at all, whereas, unless 
the gear of a cylinder moves, and power is exerted, 
all steam ways are closed, and there is no waste. 
In practice, therefore, it is found that a turbine is 
most effective when running at high speed. 

The first steam-turbines were used to drive 
dynamos. In 1884 Mr. Parsons made a turbine 
in which fifteen wheels of increasing size moved 
at the astonishing rate of 300 revolutions per second, 
and developed 10 horse-power. In 1888 followed 
a 120 horse-power turbine, and in 1892 one of 2000 

278 






I -^ g 



•5 ^ 



^8 






^ ^ ^ 

■^ ^ ^ 

^ ?^ s 

-2 ^ 



Sea Expresses 



horse-power, provided with a condenser to produce 
suction. So successful were these steam fans for 
electrical work, pumping water and ventilating 
mines, that Mr. Parsons determined to test them as 
a means of propelling ships. A small vessel loo 
feet long and 9 feet in beam was fitted with three 
turbines — high, medium, and low pressure, of a total 
2000 horse-power — a proportion of motive force to 
tonnage hitherto not approached. Yet when tried 
over the test course the Turbiniay as the boat was 
fitly named, ran in a most disappointing fashion. 
The screws revolved too fast, producing what is known 
as cavitation, or the scooping out of the water by 
the screws, so that they moved in a partial vacuum 
and utilised only a fraction of their force, from lack 
of anything to ^^ bite " on. This defect was remedied 
by employing screws of coarser pitch and larger 
blade area, three of which were attached to each 
of the three propeller shafts. On a second trial the 
Turbinia attained 32! knots over the ^^ measured 
mile," and later the astonishing speed of forty miles 
an hour, or double that of the fast Channel packets. 
At the Spithead Review in 1897 one of the most 
interesting sights was the little nimble Turbinia rushing 
up and down the rows of majestic warships at the 
rate of an express train. 

After this success Mr. Parsons erected works at 
Wallsend-on-Tyne for the special manufacture of 
turbines. The Admiralty soon placed with him an 

279 



Romance of Modern Invention 

order for a torpedo-destroyer — the Viper — of 350 
tons ; which on its trial trip exceeded forty-one 
miles an hour at an estimated horse-power (11,000) 
equalling that of our largest battleships. A sister 
vessel, the Cobray of like size, proved as speedy. 
Misfortune, however, overtook both destroyers. The 
Viper was wrecked August 3, 1901, on the coast of 
Alderney during the autumn naval manoeuvres, and 
the Cobra foundered in a severe storm on Septem- 
ber 1 2 of the same year in the North Sea. This double 
disaster casts no reflections on the turbine engines ; 
being attributed to fog in the one case and to struc- 
tural weakness in the other. The Admiralty has 
since ordered another turbine destroyer, and before 
many years are past we shall probably see all the 
great naval powers providing themselves with like 
craft to act as the ^' eyes of the fleet," and travel 
at even higher speeds than those of the Viper and 
Cobra, 

The turbine has been applied to mercantile as well 
as warlike purposes. There is at the present time 
a turbine-propelled steamer, the King Edward, run- 
ning in the Clyde on the Fairlie-Campbelltown 
route. This vessel, 250 feet long, 30 broad, 18 
deep, contains three turbines. In each the steam 
is expanded fivefold, so that by the time it passes 
into the condensers it occupies 125 times its boiler 
volume. (On the Viper the steam entered the tur- 
bine through an inlet eight inches in diameter, and 

280 



Sea Expresses 

left them by an outlet four feet square.) In cylinder 
engines thirty-fold expansion is considered a high 
ratio ; hence the turbine extracts a great deal more 
power in proportion from its steam. As a turbine 
cannot be reversed, special turbines are attached 
to the two outside of the three propeller shafts to 
drive the vessel astern. The steamer attained 20 J 
knots over the ^^ Skelmorlie mile " in fair and calm 
weather, with 3500 horse-power produced at the 
turbines. The King Edward is thus the fastest by 
two or three knots of all the Clyde steamers, as she 
is the most comfortable. We are assured that as 
far as the turbines are concerned it is impossible 
by placing the hand upon the steam-chest to tell 
whether the drum inside is revolving or not ! 

Every marine engine is judged by its economy 
in the consumption of coal. Except in times of 
national peril extra speed produced by an extrava- 
gant use of fuel would be severely avoided by all 
owners and captains of ships. At low speeds the 
turbine develops less power than cylinders from the 
same amount of steam, but when working at high 
velocity it gives at least equal results. A careful 
record kept by the managers of the Caledonian 
Steamship Company compares the King Edward 
with the Duchess of Hamilton^ a paddle steamer of 
equal tonnage used on the same route and built by 
the same firm. The record shows that though the 
paddle-boat ran a fraction of a mile further for 

281 



Romance of Modern Invention 

every ton of coal burnt in the furnaces, the King 
Edward averaged two knots an hour faster, a supe- 
riority of speed quite out of proportion to the slight 
excess of fuel. Were the Duchess driven at i8J 
knots instead of i6J her coal bill would far exceed 
that of the turbine. 

As an outcome of these first trials the Caledonian 
Company are launching a second turbine vessel. 
Three high-speed turbine yachts are also on the 
stocks; one of 700 tons, another of 1500 tons, and 
a third of 170 tons. The last, the property of 
Colonel M^Calmont, is designed for a speed of 
twenty-four knots. 

Mr. Parsons claims for his system the following 
advantages : Greatly increased speed ; increased 
carrying power of coal ; economy in coal con- 
sumption ; increased facilities for navigating shal- 
low waters ; greater stability of vessels ; reduced 
weight of machinery (the turbines of the King 
Edward weigh but one-half of cylinders required to 
give the same power) ; cheapness of attending the 
machinery ; absence of vibration, lessening wear and 
tear of the ship's hull and assisting the accurate 
training of guns ; lowered centre of gravity in the 
vessel, and consequent greater safety during times 
of war. 

The inventor has suggested a cruiser of 2800 
tons, engined up to 80,000 horse-power, to yield 
a speed of forty-four knots (about fifty miles) an 

282 



Sea Expresses 



hour. Figures such as these suggest that we may 
be on the eve of a revolution of ocean travel com- 
parable to that made by the substitution of steam for 
wind power. Whether the steam-turbine will make 
for increased speed all round, or for greater economy, 
remains to be seen ; but we may be assured of a 
higher degree of comfort. We can easily believe 
that improvements will follow in this as in other 
mechanical contrivances, and that the turbine's effi- 
ciency has not yet reached a maximum ; and even 
if our ocean expresses, naval and mercantile, do not 
attain the one-mile-a-minute standard, which is still 
regarded as creditable to the fastest methods of land 
locomotion, we look forward to a time in the near 
future when much higher speeds will prevail, and 
the tedium of long voyages be greatly shortened. 
Already there is talk of a service which shall reduce 
the trans- Atlantic journey to three-and-a-half days. 
The means are at hand to make it a fact. 

Note. — In the recently-launched turbine destroyer Velox 
a novel feature is the introduction of ordinary reciprocating 
engines fitted in conjunction with the steam turbines. These 
engines are of triple-compound type, and are coupled direct 
to the main turbines. They take steam from the boilers 
direct and exhaust into the high-pressure turbine. These 
reciprocating engines are for use at cruising speeds. When 
higher power is needed the steam will be admitted to the 
turbines direct from the boilers, and the cylinders be thrown 
out of gear. 



283 



MECHANICAL FLIGHT. 

Few, if any, problems have so strongly influenced 
the imagination and exercised the ingenuity of 
mankind as that of aerial navigation. There is 
something in our nature that rebels against being 
condemned to the condition of '^ featherless bipeds " 
when birds, bats, and even minute insects have 
the whole realm of air and the wide heavens 
open to them. Who has not, like Solomon, 
pondered upon " the way of a bird in the air " 
with feelings of envy and regret that he is 
chained to earth by his gross body ; contrasting 
our laboured movements from point to point of 
the earth's surface with the easy gliding of the 
feathered traveller ? The unrealised wish has found 
expression in legends of Daedalus, Pegasus, in the 
^' flying carpet " of the fairy tale, and in the pages 
of Jules Verne, in which last the adventurous 
Robur on his " Clipper of the Clouds " anticipates 
the future in a most startling fashion. 

Aeromobilism — to use its most modern title — 
is regarded by the crowd as the mechanical 
counterpart of the Philosopher's Stone or the 
Elixir of Life ; a highly desirable but unattainable 

284 



Mechanical Flight 



thing. At times this incredulity is transformed 
by highly-coloured press reports into an equally 
unreasonable readiness to believe that the conquest 
of the air is completed, followed by a feeling of 
irritation that facts are not as they were repre- 
sented in print. 

The proper attitude is of course half-way between 
these extremes. Reflection will show us that money, 
time, and life itself would not have been freely and 
ungrudgingly given or risked by many men — hard- 
headed, practical men among them — in pursuit of 
a Will-o'-the-Wisp, especially in a century when 
scientific calculation tends always to calm down 
any too imaginative scheme. The existing state 
of the aerial problem may be compared to that 
of a railway truck which an insufficient number 
of men are trying to move. Ten men may make 
no impression on it, though they are putting out 
all their strength. Yet the arrival of an eleventh 
may enable them to overcome the truck's inertia 
and move it at an increasing pace. 

Every new discovery of the scientific applica- 
tion of power brings us nearer to the day when 
the truck will move. We have metals of wonder- 
ful strength in proportion to their weight ; pigmy 
motors containing the force of giants ; a huge 
fund of mechanical experience to draw upon ; in 
fact, to paraphrase the Jingo song, ^' We've got 
the things, we've got the men, we've got the 

285 



Romance of Modern Invention 

money too" — but we haven't as yet got the 
machine that can mock the bird Hke the flying 
express mocks the strength and speed of horses. 

The reason of this is not far to seek. The 
difficulties attending the creation of a successful 
flying-machine are immense, some unique, not 
being found in aquatic and terrestrial locomotion. 

In the first place, the airship, flying-machine, 
aerostat, or whatever we please to call it, must 
not merely move, but also lift itself. Neither a 
ship nor a locomotive is called upon to do this. 
Its abiHty to lift itself must depend upon either 
the employment of large balloons or upon sheer 
power. In the first case the balloon will, by 
reason of its size, be unmanageable in a high 
wind ; in the second case, a breakdown in the 
machinery would probably prove fatal. 

Even supposing that our aerostat can lift itself 
successfully, we encounter the difficulties connected 
with steering in a medium traversed by ever-shifting 
currents of air, which demands of the helmsman 
a caution and capacity seldom required on land 
or water. Add to these the difficulties of leaving 
the ground and alighting safely upon it ; and, 
what is more serious than all, the fact that though 
success can be attained only by experiment, ex- 
periment is in this case extremely expensive and 
risky, any failure often resulting in total ruin of 
the machine, and sometimes in loss of life. The 

286 



Mechanical Flight 



list of those who have perished in the search for 
the power of flight is a very long one. 

Yet in spite of these obstacles determined attempts 
have been and are being made to conquer the air. 
Men in a position to judge are confident that the 
day of conquest is not very far distant, and that the 
next generation may be as familiar with aerostats as 
we with motor-cars. Speculation as to the future 
is, however, here less profitable than a consideration 
of what has been already done in the direction of 
collecting forces for the final victory. 

To begin at the beginning, we see that experi- 
menters must be divided into two great classes : 
those who pin their faith to airships lighter than 
air, e.g, Santos Dumont, Zeppelin, Roze ; and those 
who have small respect for balloons, and see the 
ideal air-craft in a machine lifted entirely by means 
of power and surfaces pressing the air after the 
manner of a kite. Sir Hiram Maxim and Pro- 
fessor S. P. Langley, Mr. Lawrence Hargrave, and 
Mr. Sydney Hollands are eminent members of 
the latter cult. 

As soon as we get on the topic of steerable 
balloons the name of Mr. Santos Dumont looms 
large. But before dealing with his exploits we may 
notice the airship of Count Zeppelin, an ingenious 
and costly structure that was tested over Lake 
Constance in 1900. 

The balloon was built in a large wooden shed, 
287 



Romance of Modern Invention 

450 by 78 by 66 feet, that floated on the lake on 
ninety pontoons. The shed alone cost over ^10,000, 

The balloon itself was nearly 400 feet long, with 
a cylindrical diameter of 39 feet, except at its 
ends, which were conical, to offer as little resistance 
as possible to the air. Externally it afforded the 
appearance of a single-compartment bag, but in 
reality it was divided into seventeen parts, each 
gas-tight, so that an accident to one part of the 
fabric should not imperil the whole. 

A framework of aluminium rods and rings gave 
the bag a partial rigidity. 

Its capacity was 1 2,000 cubic yards of hydrogen 
gas, which, as our readers doubtless know, is much 
Hghter though more expensive than ordinary coal- 
gas ; each inflation costing several hundreds of 
pounds. 

Under the balloon hung two cars of aluminium, 
the motors and the screws ; and also a great sliding 
weight of 600 lbs. for altering the '^ tip " of the 
airship ; and rudders to steer its course. 

On June 30 a great number of scientific men 
and experts assembled to witness the behaviour of 
a balloon which had cost ^20,000. For two days 
wind prevented a start, but on July 2, at 7.30 P.M., 
the balloon emerged from its shed, and at eight o'clock 
commenced its first journey, with and against a light 
easterly wind for a distance of three and a half 
miles. A mishap to the steering-gear occurred early 

288 




The air-ship of M. Santos-Dumoiit rounding the 
Eiffel Tower during its successful run for the 
Henri Deutsch Prize. 

[To face p. 288. 



Mechanical Flight 



in the trip^ and prevented the airship appearing to 
advantage, but a landing was effected easily and 
safely. In the following October the Count made 
a second attempt, returning against a wind blowing 
at three yards a second, or rather more than six 
miles an hour. 

Owing to lack of funds the fate of the " Great 
Eastern " has overtaken the Zeppelin airship — to 
be broken up, and the parts sold. 

The aged Count had demonstrated that a petroleum 
motor could be used in the neighbourhood of gas 
without danger. It was, however, reserved for a 
younger man to give a more decided proof of the 
steerableness of a balloon. 

In 1900 M. Henri Deutsch, a member of the 
French Aero Club, founded a prize of ;£40oo, to 
win which a competitor must start from the Aero 
Club Park, near the Seine in Paris, sail to and round 
the Eiffel Tower, and be back at the starting-point 
within a time-limit of half-an-hour. 

M. Santos Dumont, a wealthy and plucky young 
Brazilian, had, previously to this offer, made several 
successful journeys in motor balloons in the neigh- 
bourhood of the Eiffel Tower. He therefore deter- 
mined to make a bid for the prize with a specially 
constructed balloon ^^ Santos Dumont V." The third 
unsuccessful attempt ended in disaster to the air- 
ship, which fell on to the houses, but fortunately 
without injuring its occupant. 

289 T 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Another balloon — " Santos Dumont VI." — was 
then built. On Saturday, October 19th, M. Dumont 
reached the Tower in nine minutes and recrossed 
the starting line in 20J more minutes, thus comply- 
ing with the conditions of the prize with half-a- 
minute to spare. A dispute, however, arose as 
to whether the prize had been actually won, some 
of the committee contending that the balloon should 
have come to earth within the half-hour, instead 
of merely passing overhead ; but finally the well- 
merited prize was awarded to the determined young 
aeronaut. 

The successful airship was of moderate propor- 
tions as compared with that of Count Zeppelin. 
The cigar-shaped bag was 112 feet long and 20 
feet in diameter, holding 715 cubic yards of gas. 
M. Dumont showed originality in furnishing it 
with a smaller balloon inside, which could be 
pumped full of air so as to counteract any leakage 
in the external bag and keep it taut. The motor, 
on which everything depended, was a four-cylinder 
petrol-driven engine, furnished with ^^ water-jackets " 
to prevent over-heating. The motor turned a large 
screw — made of silk and stretched over light frames 
— 200 times a minute, giving a driving force of 
175 lbs. Behind, a rudder directed the airship, 
and in front hung down a long rope suspended by 
one end that could be drawn towards the centre 
of the frame to alter the trim of the ship. The 

290 



■/i 



Mechanical Flight 



aeronaut stood in a large wicker basket flanked on 
either side by bags of sand ballast. The fact that 
the motor, once stopped, could only be restarted 
by coming to earth again added an element of great 
uncertainty to all his trips ; and on one occasion 
the mis-firing of one of the cylinders almost brought 
about a collision with the Eiffel Tower. 

From Paris M. Dumont went to Monaco at the 
invitation of the prince of that principality, and 
cruised about over the bay in his balloon. His fresh 
scheme was to cross to Corsica, but it was brought 
to an abrupt conclusion by a leakage of gas, which 
precipitated balloon and balloonist into the sea. 
Dumont was rescued, and at once set about new 
projects, including a visit to the Crystal Palace, 
where he would have made a series of ascents this 
summer (1902) but for damage done to the silk of 
the gas-bag by its immersion in salt water and the 
other vicissitudes it had passed through. Dumont's 
most important achievement has been, like that of 
Count Zeppelin, the application of the gasolene 
motor to aeromobilism. In proportion to its size this 
form of motor develops a large amount of energy, 
and its mechanism is comparatively simple — a matter 
of great moment to the aeronaut. He has also 
shown that under favourable conditions a balloon may 
be steered against a head-wind, though not with the 
certainty that is desirable before air travel can be 
pronounced an even moderately simple undertaking. 

291 



Romance of Modern Invention 

The fact that many inventorS; such as Dr. Barton, 
M. Roze, Henri Deutsch, are fitting motors to 
balloons in the hopes of solving the aerial problem 
shows that the airship has still a strong hold on the 
minds of men. But on reviewing the successes of 
such combinations of lifting and driving power it 
must be confessed, with all due respect to M. Dumont, 
that they are somewhat meagre, and do not show 
any great advance. 

The question is whether these men are not working 
on wrong lines, and whether their utmost endeavours 
and those of their successors will ever produce any- 
thing more than a very semi-successful craft. Their 
efforts appear foredoomed to failure. As Sir Hiram 
Maxim has observed, a balloon by its very nature is 
light and fragile, it is a mere bubble. If it were 
possible to construct a motor to develop loo horse- 
power for every pound of its weight, it would still be 
impossible to navigate a balloon against a wind of 
more than a certain strength. The mere energy 
of the motor would crush the gas-bag against the 
pressure of the wind, deform it, and render it 
unmanageable. Balloons therefore must be at the 
mercy of the wind, and obliged to submit to it under 
conditions not always in accordance with the wish of 
the aeronaut. 

Sir Hiram in condemning the airship was ready 
with a substitute. On looking round on the patterns 
of Nature, he concluded that, inasmuch as all things 

292 



Mechanical Flight 



that fly are heavier than air, the problem of aerial 
navigation must be solved by a machine whose 
natural tendency is to fall to the ground, and which 
can be sustained only by the exertion of great force. 
Its very weight would enable it to withstand, at least 
to a far greater extent than the airship, the varying 
currents of the air. 

The lifting principle must be analogous to that by 
which a kite is suspended. A kite is prevented from 
rising beyond a certain height by a string, and the 
pressure of the wind working against it at an angle 
tends to lift it, like a soft wedge continuously driven 
under it. In practice it makes no difference whether 
the kite be stationary in a wind or towed rapidly 
through a dead calm ; the wedge-like action of the 
air remains the same. 

Maxim decided upon constructing what was practi- 
cally a huge compound kite driven by very powerful 
motors. 

But before setting to work on the machine itself 
he made some useful experiments to determine the 
necessary size of his kites or aeroplanes, and the 
force requisite to move them. 

He accordingly built a '^ whirling-table," consisting 
of a long arm mounted on a strong pivot at one 
end, and driven by a lo horse-power engine. To 
the free end, which described a circle of 200 feet in 
circumference, he attached small aeroplanes, and 
by means of delicate balances discovered that at 

293 



Romance of Modern Invention 

40 miles an hour the aeroplane would lift 133 lbs. per 
horse-power, and at 60 miles per hour every square 
foot of surface sustained 8 lbs. weight. He, in 
common with other experimenters on the same lines, 
became aware of the fact that if it took a certain 
strain to suspend a stationary weight in the air, to 
advance it rapidly as well as to suspend it took a smaller 
strain. Now, as on sea and land, increased speed 
means a very rapid increase in the force required, 
this is a point in favour of the flying-machine. 
Professor Langley found that a brass plate weighing 
a pound, when whirled at great speed, was sup- 
ported in the air by a pulling pressure of less than 
one ounce. And, of course, as the speed increased 
the plate became more nearly horizontal, offering less 
resistance to the air. 

It is on this behaviour of the aeroplane that the 
hopes of Maxim and others have been based. The 
swiftly moving aeroplane, coming constantly on to 
fresh air, the inertia of which had not been disturbed, 
would resemble the skater who can at high speed 
traverse ice that would not bear him at rest. 

Maxim next turned his attention to the construc- 
tion of the aeroplanes and engines. He made a 
special machine for testing fabrics, to decide which 
would be most suitable for stretching over strong 
frames to form the planes. The fabric must be light, 
very strong, and offer small frictional resistance to 
the air. The testing-machine was fitted with a 

294 



Mechanical Flight 



nozzle, through which air was forced at a known pace 
on to the substance under trial, which met the air 
current at a certain angle and by means of indicators 
showed the strength of its ^^ lift " or tendency to rise, 
and that of its " drift " or tendency to move horizon- 
tally in the direction of the air-current. A piece of 
tin, mounted at an angle of one in ten to the air- 
current, showed a "lift" of ten times its "drift." 
This proportion was made the standard. Experi- 
ments conducted on velvet, plush, silk, cotton and 
woollen goods proved that the drift of crape was 
several times that of its lift, but that fine linen had a 
lift equal to nine times its drift ; while a sample of 
Spencer's balloon fabric was as good as tin. 

Accordingly he selected this balloon fabric to 
stretch over light but strong frames. The stretching 
of the material was no easy matter, as uneven tension 
distorted it ; but eventually the aeroplanes were com- 
pleted, tight as drumheads. 

The large or central plane was 50 feet wide and 
40 long ; on either side were auxiliary planes, five 
pairs ; giving a total area of 5400 square feet. 

The steam-engine built to give the motive power 
was perhaps the most interesting feature of the whole 
construction. Maxim employed steam in preference 
to any other power as being one with which he was 
most familiar, and yielding most force in proportion 
to the weight of the apparatus. He designed and 
constructed a pair of high -pressure compound 

295 



Romance of Modern Invention 

engines, the high-pressure cylinders 5 inches in 
diameter, the low-pressure 8 inches, and both i 
foot stroke. Steam was supplied to the high- 
pressure cylinders at 320 lbs. per square inch from 
a tubular boiler heated by a gasolene burner so 
powerful in its action as to raise the pressure 
from 100 to 200 lbs, in a minute. The total 
weight of the boiler, burner, and engines develop- 
ing 350 horse-power was 2000 lbs., or about 6 lbs. 
per horse-power. 

The two screw-propellers driven by the engine 
measured 17 feet 11 inches in diameter. 

The completed flying-machine, weighing 7500 
lbs., was mounted on a railway-truck of 9 -foot 
gauge, in Baldwyn's Park, Kent, not far from the 
gun - factories for which Sir Hiram is famous. 
Outside and parallel to the 9-foot track was a 
second track, 35 feet across, with a reversed rail, 
so that as soon as the machine should rise from 
the inner track long spars furnished with flanged 
wheels at their extremities should press against the 
under side of the outer track and prevent the 
machine from rising too far. Dynamometers, or 
instruments for measuring strains, were fitted to 
decide the driving and lifting power of the screws. 
Experiments proved that with the engines working at 
full power the screw-thrust against the air was 2200 
lbs., and the lifting force of the aeroplanes 10,000 lbs., 
or 1500 in excess of the machine's weight. 

296 



Mechanical Flight 



Everything being ready the machine was fastened 
to a dynamometer and steam run up until it strained at 
its tether with maximum power ; when the moorings 
were suddenly released and it bounded forward at a 
terrific pace, so suddenly that some of the crew were 
flung violently down on to the platform. When a 
speed of 42 miles was reached the inner wheels left 
their track, and the outer wheels came into play. 
Unfortunately, the long 3 5 -foot axletrees were too 
v/eak to bear the strain, and one of them broke. The 
upper track gave way, and for the first time in the 
history of the world a flying-machine actually left the 
ground fully equipped with engines, boiler, fuel, and 
a crew. The journey, however, was a short one, for 
part of the broken track fouled the screws, snapped a 
propeller blade and necessitated the shutting off of 
the steam, which done, the machine settled to earth, 
the wheels sinking into the sward and showing by 
the absence of any marks that it had come directly 
downwards and not run along the surface. 

The inventor was prevented by other business, 
and by the want of a sufficiently large open space, 
from continuing his experiments, which had de- 
monstrated that a large machine heavier than air 
could be made to lift itself and move at high 
speed. Misfortune alone prevented its true capa- 
cities being shown. 

Another experimenter on similar lines, but on a 
less heroic scale than Sir Hiram Maxim, is Pro- 

297 



Romance of Modern Invention 

fessor S. P. Langley, the secretary of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, Washington. For sixteen years 
he has devoted himself to a persevering course of 
study of the flying-machine, and after oft-repeated 
failures has scored a decided success in his 
Aerodrome, which, though only a model, has 
made considerable flights. His researches have 
proved beyond doubt that the amount of energy 
required for flight is but one-fiftieth of what was 
formerly regarded as a minimum. A French mathe- 
matician had proved by figures that a swallow 
must develop the power of a horse to maintain 
its rapid flight ! Professor Langley's aerodrome 
has told a very different tale, affording another 
instance of the truth of the saying that an ounce 
of practice is worth a pound of theory. 

A bird is nearly one thousand times heavier 
than the air it displaces. As a motor it develops 
huge power for its weight, and consumes a very 
large amount of fuel in doing so. An observant 
naturalist has calculated that the homely robin 
devours per diem, in proportion to its size, what 
would be to a man a sausage two hundred feet 
long and three inches thick ! Any one who has 
watched birds pulling worms out of the garden 
lawn and swallowing them wholesale can readily 
credit this. 

Professor Langley therefore concentrated him- 
self on the production of an extremely light and 

298 



Mechanical Flight 



at the same time powerful machine. Like Maxim, 
he turned to steam for motive-power, and by 
rigid economy of weight constructed an engine 
with boilers weighing 5 lbs., cylinders of 26 
ozs., and an energy of i to ij horse-power! 
Surely a masterpiece of mechanical workman- 
ship ! This he enclosed in a boat-shaped cover 
which hung from two pairs of aeroplanes 12J 
feet from tip to tip. The whole apparatus 
weighed nearly 30 lbs., of which one quarter re- 
presented the machinery. Experiments with smaller 
aerodromes warned the Professor that rigidity 
and balance were the two most difficult things to 
attain ; also that the starting of the machine on 
its aerial course was far from an easy matter. 

A soaring bird does not rise straight from the 
ground, but opens its wings and runs along the 
ground until the pressure of the air raises it 
sufficiently to give a full stroke of its pinions. 
Also it rises against the wind to get the full 
benefit of its lifting force. Professor Langley 
hired a houseboat on the Potomac River, and on 
the top of it built an apparatus from which the 
aerodrome could be launched into space at high 
velocity. 

On May 6, 1896, after a long wait for pro- 
pitious v/eather, the aerodrome was despatched on 
a trial trip. It rose in the face of the wind and 
travelled for over half a mile at the rate of twenty- 

299 



Romance of Modern Invention 

five miles an hour. The water and fuel being 
then exhausted it settled lightly on the water and 
was again launched. Its flight on both occasions 
was steady, and limited only by the rapid con- 
sumption of its power-producing elements. The 
Professor believes that larger machines would re- 
main in the air for a long period and travel at 
speeds hitherto unknown to us. 

In both the machines that we have considered 
the propulsive power was a screw. No counter- 
part of it is seen in Nature. This is not a valid 
argument against its employment, since no animal 
is furnished with driving-wheels, nor does any fish 
carry a revolving propeller in its tail. But some 
inventors are strongly in favour of copying Nature 
as regards the employment of wings. Mr. Sydney 
H. Hollands, an enthusiastic aeromobilist, has de- 
vised an ingenious cylinder-motor so arranged as 
to flap a pair of long wings, giving them a much 
stronger impulse on the down than on the up 
stroke. The pectoral muscles of a bird are re- 
produced by two strong springs which are extended 
by the upward motion of the wings and store up 
energy for the down-stroke. Close attention is 
also being paid to the actual shape of a bird's 
wing, which is not flat but hollow on its under 
side, and at the front has a slightly downward 
dip. ^< Aerocurves " are therefore Hkely to super- 
sede the ^'aeroplane," for Nature would not have 

300 




I 



M. Santos Dnmont's Airship returning to Longchamps after doubling 
the Eiffel Tower^ October 19^ 190 1. 

[To face p. 300. 



Mechanical Flight 

built bird's wings as they are without an object. 
The theory of the aerocurve's action is this : 
that the front of the wing, on striking the air, 
gives it a downwards motion, and if the wing 
were quite flat its rear portion would strike air 
already in motion, and therefore less buoyant. 
The curvature of a floating bird's wings, which 
becomes more and more pronounced towards the 
rear, counteracts this yielding of the air by pressing 
harder upon it as it passes towards their hinder 
edge. 

The aerocurve has been used by a very interest- 
ing group of experimenters, those who, putting 
motors entirely aside, have floated on wings, and 
learnt some of the secrets of balancing in the air. 
For a man to propel himself by flapping wings 
moved by legs or arms is impossible. Sir Hiram 
Maxim, in addressing the Aeronautical Society, 
once said that for a man to successfully imitate 
a bird his lungs must weigh 40 lbs., to consume 
sufficient oxygen, his breast muscles 75 lbs., and 
his breast bone be extended in front 21 inches. 
And unless his total weight were increased his 
legs must dwindle to the size of broomsticks, his 
head to that of an apple I So that for the present 
we shall be content to remain as we are I 

Dr. Lilienthal, a German, was the first to try 
scientific wing-sailing. He became a regular air 
gymnast, running down the sides of an artificial 

301 



Romance of Modern Invention 

mound until the wings lifted him up and enabled 
him to float a considerable distance before reaching 
earth again. His wings had an area of i6o square 
feet, or about a foot to every pound weight. He 
was killed by the wings collapsing in mid-air. A 
similar fate also overtook Mr. Percy Pilcher, who 
abandoned the initial run down a sloping surface in 
favour of being towed on a rope attached to a fast- 
moving vehicle. At present Mr. Octave Chanute, of 
Chicago, is the most distinguished member of the 
" gUding " school. He employs, instead of wings, 
a species of kite made up of a number of small 
aerocurves placed one on the top of another a small 
distance apart. These box kites are said to give a 
great lifting force for their weight. 

These and many other experimenters have had the 
same object in view — to learn the laws of equihbrium 
in the air. Until these are fully understood the 
construction of large flying-machines must be re- 
garded as somewhat premature. Man must walk 
before he can run, and balance himself before he 
can fly. 

There is no falling off in the number of aerial 
machines and schemes brought from time to time 
into public notice. We may assure ourselves that 
if patient work and experiment can do it the prob- 
lem of '' how to fly " is not very far from solution 
at the present moment. 

As a sign of the times, the War Office, not usually 
302 



Mechanical Flight 

very ready to take up a new idea, has interested itself 
in the airship, and commissioned Dr. F. A. Barton 
to construct a dirigible balloon which combines the 
two systems of aerostation. Propulsion is effected 
by six sets of triple propellers, three on each side. 
Ascent is brought about partly by a balloon i8o 
feet long, containing 156,000 cubic feet of hydrogen, 
partly by nine aeroplanes having a total superficial 
area of nearly 2000 square feet. The utilisation of 
these aeroplanes obviates the necessity to throw out 
ballast to rise, or to let out gas for a descent. The 
airship, being just heavier than air, is raised by the 
135 horse-power motors pressing the aeroplanes 
against the air at the proper angle. In descent they 
act as parachutes. 

The most original feature of this war balloon is 
the automatic water-balance. At each end of the 
^' deck " is a tank holding forty gallons of water. 
Two pumps circulate water through these tanks, 
the amount sent into a tank being regulated by a 
heavy pendulum which turns on the cock leading to 
the end which may be highest in proportion as it 
turns off that leading to the lower end. The idea is 
very ingenious, and should work successfully when 
the time of trial comes. 

Valuable money prizes will be competed for by 
aeronauts at the coming World's Fair at St. Louis 
in 1903. Sir Hiram Maxim has expressed an in- 
tention of spending ^20,000 in further experiments 

303 



Romance of Modern Invention 

and prizes. In this country, too, certain journals 
have offered large rewards to any aeronaut who 
shall make prescribed journeys in a given time. 
It has also been suggested that aeronautical research 
should be endowed by the state, since England has 
nothing to fear more than the flying machine and 
the submarine boat, each of which tends to rob her 
of the advantages of being an island by exposing her 
to jLinexpected and unseen attacks. 

Tennyson, in a fine passage in " Locksley Hall," 
turns a poetical eye towards the future. This is 
what he sees — 

" For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, 
Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be, 
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sail, 
Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales, 
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, then there rained a 

ghostly dew, 
From the nations' airy navies, grappling in the central blue." 

Expressed in more prosaic language, the flying- 
machine will primarily be used for military purposes. 
A country cannot spread a metal umbrella over itself 
to protect its towns from explosives dropped from 
the clouds. 

Mail services will be revolutionised. The pleasure 
aerodrome will take the place of the yacht and 
motor-car, affording grand opportunities foi the 
mountaineer and explorer (if the latter could find 
anything new to explore). Then there will also be 

304 



Mechanical Flight 



a direct route to the North Pole over the top of 
those terrible icefields that have cost civilisation so 
many gallant lives. And possibly the ease of tran- 
sit will bring the nations closer together, and pro- 
duce good-fellowship and concord among them. 
It is pleasanter to regard the flying-machine of the 
future as a bringer of peace than as a novel means 
of spreading death and destruction. 



305 



TYPE-SETTING BY MACHINERY. 

To the Assyrian brickmakers who, thousands of years 
ago, used blocks wherewith to impress on their un- 
baked bricks hieroglyphics and symbolical characters, 
must be attributed the first hesitating step towards 
that most marvellous and revolutionary of human 
discoveries — the art of printing. Not, however, till 
the early part of the fifteenth century did Gutenberg 
and Coster conceive the brilliant but simple idea of 
printing from separate types, which could be set in 
different orders and combinations to represent differ- 
ent ideas. For Englishmen, 1474 deserves to rank 
with 18 1 5, as in that year a very Waterloo was won 
on English soil against the forces of ignorance and 
oppression, though the effects of the victory were not 
at once evident. Considering the stir made at the 
time by the appearance of Caxton's first book at 
Westminster, it seems strange that an invention of 
such importance as the printing-press should have 
been frowned upon by those in power, and so dis- 
couraged that for nearly two centuries printing re- 
mained an ill-used and unprogressive art, a giant 
half strangled in his cradle. Yet as soon as prejudice 
gave it an open field, improved methods followed 
close on one another's heels. To-day we have in the 

306 



Type-Setting by Machinery 

place of Caxton's rude hand-made press great cylinder 
machines capable of absorbing paper by the mile, and 
grinding out 20,000 impressions an hour as easily as a 
child can unwind a reel of cotton. 

Side by side with the problem how to produce the 
greatest possible number of copies in a given time 
from one machine, has arisen another : — how to set up 
type with a proportionate rapidity. A press without 
type is as useless as a chaff-cutter without hay or 
straw. The type once assembled, as many casts or 
stereotypes can be made from it as there are machines 
to be worked. But to arrange a large body of type 
in a short time brings the printer face to face with the 
need of employing the expensive services of a small 
army of compositors — unless he can attain his end by 
some equally efficient and less costly means. For the 
last century a struggle has been in progress between 
the machine compositor and the human compositor, 
mechanical ingenuity against eye and brains. In the 
last five years the battle has turned most decidedly in 
favour of the machine. To-day there are in existence 
two wonderful contrivances which enable a man to 
set up type six times as fast as he could by hand from 
a box of type, with an ease that reminds one of the 
mythical machine for the conversion of live pigs into 
strings of sausages by an uninterrupted series of 
movements. 

These machines are called respectively the Linotype 
and Monotype. Roughly described, they are to the 
compositor what a typewriter is to a clerk — forming 

307 



I. 



Romance of Modern Invention 

words in obedience to the depression of keys on a 
keyboard. But whereas the typewriter merely im- 
prints a single character on paper, the linotype and 
monotype cast, deliver, and set up type from which 
an indefinite number of impressions can be taken. 
They meet the compositor more than half-way, 
and simplify his labour while hugely increasing his 
productiveness. 

As far back as 1842 periodicals were mechanically 
composed by a machine which is now practically 
forgotten. Since that time hundreds of other inven- 
tions have been patented, and some scores of different 
machines tried, though with small success in most 
cases ; as it was found that quality of composition was 
sacrificed to quantity, and that what at first appeared 
a short cut to the printing-press was after all the 
longest way round, when corrections had all been 
attended to. A really economical type-setter must be 
accurate as well as prolific. Slipshod work will not 
pay in the long run. 

Such a machine was perfected a few years ago by 
Ottmar Mergenthaler of Baltimore, who devised the 
plan of casting a whole line of type. The Linotype 
Composing Machine, to give it its full title, produces 
type all ready for the presses in ^^ slugs " or lines — 
hence the name, Lin' o' type. It deserves at least a 
short description. 

The Linotype occupies about six square feet of 
floor space, weighs one ton, and is entirely operated 
by one man. Its most prominent features are a slop- 

308 




By kind permission of] 



[T/ie Linotype Co. 



The Linotype Machine. By pressing keys on the key-board the operator 
causes lines of type to be set up^ cast, and arranged on the 
'^galley" ready for tlie printers. 

ITo face p. 308. 



Type-Setting by Machinery 

ing magazine at the top to hold the brass matrices, or 
dies from which the type is cast, a keyboard control- 
hng the machinery to drop and collect the dies, and a 
long lever which restores the dies to the magazine 
when done with. 

The operator sits facing the keyboard, in which are 
ninety keys, variously coloured to distinguish the 
different kinds of letters. His hands twinkle over the 
keys, and the brass dies fly into place. When a key is 
depressed a die shoots from the magazine on to a 
travelling belt and is whirled off to the assembling-box. 
Each die is a flat, oblong brass plate, of a thickness 
varying with the letter, having a large V-shaped notch 
in the top, and the letter cut half-way down on one of 
the longer sides. A corresponding letter is stamped 
on the side nearest to the operator so that he may see 
what he is doing and make needful corrections. 

As soon as a word is complete, he touches the 
" spacing " lever at the side of the keyboard. The 
action causes a '^ space " to be placed against the last 
die to separate it from the following word. The 
operations are repeated until the tinkle of a bell warns 
him that, though there may be room for one or two 
more letters, the line will not admit another whole 
syllable. The line must therefore be ^* justified," that 
is, the spaces between the words increased till the 
vacant room is filled in. In hand composition this 
takes a considerable time, and is irksome ; but at the 
linotype the operator merely twists a handle and the 
wedge-shaped ^^ spaces," placed thin end upwards, are 

309 



Romance of Modern Invention 

driven up simultaneously, giving the lateral expansion 
required to make the line of the right measure. 

A word about the ^' spaces/' or space-bands. Were 
each a single wedge the pressure would be on the 
bottom only of the dies, and their tops, being able to 
move slightly, would admit lead between them. To 
obviate this a small second wedge, thin end downwards^ 
is arranged to slide on the larger wedge, so that in all 
positions parallelism is secured. This smaller wedge 
is of the same shape as the dies and remains stationary 
in line with them, the larger one only moving. 

The line of dies being now complete, it is auto- 
matically borne off and pressed into contact with the 
casting wheel. This wheel, revolving on its centre, 
has a slit in it corresponding in length and width to 
the size of line required. At first the slit is horizontal, 
and the dies fit against it so that the row of sunk 
letters on the faces are in the exact position to receive 
the molten lead, which is squirted through the slit 
from behind by an automatic pump, supplied from a 
metal-pot. The pot is kept at a proper heat of 550" 
Fahrenheit by the flames of a Bunsen burner. 

The lead solidifies in an instant, and the ^'slug" 
of type is ready for removal, after its back has been 
carefully trimmed by a knife. The wheel revolves 
for a quarter-turn, bringing the slit into a vertical 
position ; a punch drives out the ^' slug," which is slid 
into the galley to join its predecessors. The wheel 
then resumes its former horizontal position in readi- 
ness for another cast. 

310 



Type-Setting by Machinery 

The assembled dies have for the time done their 
work and must be returned to the magazine. The 
mechanism used to effect this is peculiarly ingenious. 

An arm carrying a ribbed bar descends. The dies 
are pushed up, leaving the *' spaces" behind to be 
restored to their proper compartment, till on a level 
with the ribbed bar, on to which they are slid by a 
lateral movement, the notches of the V-shaped open- 
ing in the top side of each die engaging with the ribs 
on the bar. The bar then ascends till it is in line 
with a longer bar of like section passing over the 
open top of the entire magazine. A set of horizontal 
screw-bars, rotating at high speed, transfer the dies 
from the short to the long bar, along which they 
move till, as a die comes above its proper division of 
the magazine, the arrangement of the teeth allows it 
to drop. While all this has been going on, the 
operator has composed another line of moulds, which 
will in turn be transferred to the casting wheel, and 
then back to the magazine. So that the three opera- 
tions of composing, casting, and sorting moulds are 
in progress simultaneously in different parts of the 
machine ; with the result that as many as 20,000 
letters can be formed by an expert in the space of 
an hour, against the 1500 letters of a skilled hand 
compositor. 

How about corrections ? Even a comma too few 
or too many needs the whole line cast over again. 
It is a convincing proof of the difference in speed 
between the two methods that a column of type can 

311 



Romance of Modern Invention 

be corrected much faster by the machine, handi- 
capped as it is by its solid *' slugs/' than by hand. 
No wonder then that more than looo linotypes are 
to be found in the printing offices of Great Britain. 

The Monotype, like the Linotype, aims at speed in 
composition, but in its mechanism it differs essen- 
tially from the linotype. In the first place, the 
apparatus is constructed in two quite separate parts. 
There is a keyboard, which may be on the third floor 
of the printing offices, and the casting machine, which 
ceaselessly casts and sets type in the basement. Yet 
they are but one whole. The connecting link is the 
long strip of paper punched by the keyboard mechan- 
ism, and then transferred to the casting machine to 
bring about the formation of type. The keyboard is 
the servant of man ; the casting machine is the slave 
of the keyboard. 

Secondly, the Monotype casts type, not in blocks 
or a whole line, but in separate letters. It is thus a 
complete type-foundry. Order it to cast G's and it 
will turn them out by the thousand till another letter 
is required. 

Thirdly, by means of the punched paper roll, the 
same type can be set up time after time without a 
second recourse to the keyboard, just as a tune is 
ground repeatedly out of a barrel organ. 

The keyboard has a formidable appearance. It 
contains 225 keys, providing as many characters ; 
also thirty keys to regulate the spacing of the words. 
At the back of the machine a roll of paper runs over 

312 




By kind permisjiOH of] 



[The Monotype Co. 



The Monotype Casting Machine. A punclied paper rotl fed tl trough the top of 
tJie machine antomatically casts and sets up type in separate letters. 

[To face p. 312 



Type-Setting by Machinery 

rollers and above a row of thirty little punches 
worked by the keys. A key being depressed, an 
opened valve admits air into two cylinders, each 
driving a punch. The punches fly up and cut two 
neat little holes in the paper. The roll then moves 
forward for the next letter. At the end of the word 
a special lever is used to register a space, and so on 
to the end of Ihe line. The operator then consults an 
automatic indicator which tells him exactly how 
much space is left, and how much too long or too 
short the line would be if the spaces were of the 
normal size. Supposing, for instance, that there are 
ten spaces, and that there is one-tenth of an inch to 
spare. It is obvious that by extending each space 
one-hundredth of an inch the vacant room will be 
exactly filled. Similarly, if the ten normal spaces 
would make the line one-tenth of an inch too longy 
by decreasing the spaces each one-hundredth inch the 
line will also be '^ justified." 

But the operator need not trouble his head about 
calculations of this kind. His indicator, a vertical 
cylinder covered with tiny squares, in each of which 
are printed two figures, tell him exactly what he has 
to do. Qn pressing a certain key the cylinder revolves 
and comes to rest with the tip of a pointer over a 
square. The operator at once presses down the keys 
bearing the numbers printed on that square, confident 
that the line will be of the proper length. 

As soon as the roll is finished, it is detached from 
the keyboard and introduced to the casting machine. 

313 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Hitherto passive, it now becomes active. Having 
been placed in position on the rollers it is slowly 
unwound by the machinery. The paper passes over 
a hollow bar in which there are as many holes as 
there were punches in the keyboard, and in precisely 
the same position. When a hole in the paper comes 
over a hole in the hollow bar air rushes in, and 
passing through a tube actuates the type-setting 
machinery in a certain manner, so as to bring the 
desired die into contact with molten lead. The dies 
are, in the monotype, all carried in a magazine about 
three inches square, which moves backwards or for- 
wards, to right or left, in obedience to orders from 
the perforated roll. The dies are arranged in exactly 
the same way as the keys on the keyboard. So that, 
supposing A to have been stamped on the roll, one of 
the perforations causes the magazine to slide one way, 
while the other shoves it another, until the combined 
motions bring the matrix engraved with the A under- 
neath the small hole through which molten lead is 
forced. The letter is ejected and moves sideways 
through a narrow channel, pushing preceding letters 
before it, and the magazine is free for other 
movements. 

At the end of each word a '^ space " or blank lead is 
cast, its size exactly determined by the " justifying " 
hole belonging to that line. Word follows word till 
the line is complete ; then a knife-like lever rises, and 
the type is propelled into the "galley." Though a 
slave the casting machine will not tolerate injustice 

314 



Type-Setting by Machinery 

Should the compositor have made a mistake, so that 
the Hne is too long or too short, automatic machinery 
at once comes into play, and slips the driving belt 
from the fixed to the loose pulley, thus stopping the 
machine till some one can attend to it. But if the 
punching has been correctly done, the machine will 
work away unattended till, a whole column of type 
having been set up, it comes to a standstill. 

The advantages of ^the Monotype are easily seen. 
In order to save money a man need not possess the 
complete apparatus. If he has the keyboard only he 
becomes to a certain extent his own compositor, able 
to set up the type, as it were by proxy, at any con- 
venient time. He can give his undivided attention to 
the keyboard, stop work whenever he likes without 
keeping a casting-machine idle, and as soon as his roll 
is complete forward it to a central establishment 
where type is set. There a single man can superin- 
tend the completion of half-a-dozen men's labours 
at the keyboard. That means a great reduction of 
expense. 

In due time he receives back his copy in the shape 
of set-up type, all ready to be corrected and trans- 
ferred to the printing machines. The type done with, 
he can melt it down without fear of future regret, for 
he knows that the paper roll locked up in his cup- 
board will do its work a second time as well as it did 
the first. Should he need the same matter re-setting, 
he has only to send the roll through the post to the 
central establishment. 

315 



Romance of Modern Invention 

Thanks to Mr. Lanston's invention we may hope 
for the day when every parish will be able to do its 
own printing, or at least set up its own magazine. 
The only thing needful will be a monotype key- 
board supplied by an enlightened Parish Council — as 
soon as the expense appears justifiable — and kept 
in the Post Office or Village Institute. The payment 
of a small fee will entitle the Squire to punch out his 
spveech on behalf of the Conservative Candidate, the 
Schoolmaster to compose special information for his 
pupils, the Rector to reduce to print pamphlets and 
appeals to charity. And if those of humbler degree 
think they can strike eloquence from the keys, they 
too will of course be allowed to turn out their ideas 
literally by the yard. 



316 



PHOTOGRAPHY IN COLOURS. 

While photography was still in its infancy many 
people believed that, a means having been found of 
impressing the representation of an object on a 
sensitised surface, a short time only would have 
to elapse before the discovery of some method of 
registering the colours as well as the forms of 
nature. 

Photography has during the last forty years passed 
through some startling developments, especially as 
regards speed. Experts, such as M. Marey, have 
proved the superiority of the camera over the human 
eye in its power to grasp the various phases of animal 
motion. Even rifle bullets have been arrested in their 
lightning flight by the sensitised plate. But while 
the camera is a valuable aid to the eye in the matter of 
form, the eye still has the advantage so far as colour 
is concerned. It is still impossible for a photographer 
by a simple process similar to that of making an 
ordinary black-and-white negative, to affect a plate in 
such a manner that from it prints may be made by 
a single operation showing objects in their natural 
colours. Nor, for the matter of that, does colour 
photography direct from nature seem any nearer 
attainment now than it was in the time of Daguerre. 



I 



Romance of Modern Invention 

There are, however, extant several methods of 
making colour photographs in an indirect or round- 
about v^ay. These various " dodges " are, apart from 
their beautiful results, so extremely ingenious and 
interesting that we propose to here examine three of 
the best known. 

The reader must be careful to banish from his mind 
those coloured photographs so often to be seen in 
railway carriages and shop windows, which are purely 
the result of hand-work and mechanical printing, and 
therefore not colour photographs at all. 

Before embarking on an explanation of these three 
methods it will be necessary to examine briefly the 
nature of those phenomena on which all are based — 
light and colour. The two are really identical, light 
is colour and colour is light. 

Scientists now agree that the sensation of light 
arises from the wave-like movements of that mys- 
terious fluid, the omnipresent ether. In a beam of 
white light several rates of wave vibrations exist side 
by side. Pass the beam through a prism and the 
various rapidities are sorted out into violet, indigo, 
blue, green, yellow, orange and red, which are called 
the pure colours, since if any of them be passed again 
through a prism the result is still that colour. Crim- 
son, brown, &c., the composite colours, would, if 
subjected to the prism, at once split up into their 
component pure colours. 

318 



Photography in Colours 

There are several points to be noticed about the 
relationship of the seven pure colours. In the first 
place, though they are all allies in the task of making 
white light, there is hostility among them, each being 
jealous of the others, and only waiting a chance to 
show it. Thus, suppose that we have on a strip of 
paper squares of the seven colours, and look at the 
strip through a piece of red glass we see only one 
square — the red — in its natural colour, since that 
square is in harmony only with red rays. (Compare 
the sympathy of a piano with a note struck on another 
instrument ; if C is struck, say on a violin, the piano 
strings producing the corresponding note will sound, 
but the other strings will be silent.) The orange 
square suggests orange, but the green and blue and 
violet appear black. Red glass has arrested their 
ether vibrations and said ^* no way here." Green and 
violet would serve just the same trick on red or on 
each other. It is from this readiness to absorb or 
stop dissimilar rays that we have the different colours 
in a landscape flooded by a common white sunlight. 
The trees and grass absorb all but the green rays, 
which they reflect. The dandelions and buttercups 
capture and hold fast all but the yellow rays. The 
poppies in the corn send us back red only, and the 
cornflowers only blue ; but the daisy is more generous 
and gives up all the seven. Colour therefore is not a 
thing that can be touched, any more than sound, but 

319 



Romance of Modern Invention 

merely the capacity to affect the retina of the eye with 
a certain number of ether vibrations per second, and 
it makes no difference whether Hght is reflected from 
a substance or refracted through a substance ; a red 
brick and a piece of red glass have similar effects on 
the eye. 

This then is the first thing to be clearly grasped, 
that whenever a colour has a chance to make prisoners 
of other colours it will do so. 

The second point is rather more intricate, viz. that 
this imprisonment is going on even when friendly 
concord appears to be the order of the day. Let us 
endeavour to present this clearly to the reader. Of 
the pure colours, violet, green and red — the extremes 
and the centre — are sufficient to produce white, be- 
cause each contains an element of its neighbours, 
Violet has a certain amount of indigo, green some 
yellow, red some orange ; in fact every colour of the 
spectrum contains a greater or less degree of several 
of the others, but not enough to destroy its own 
identity. Now, suppose that we have three lanterns 
projecting their rays on to the same portion of a 
white sheet, and that in front of the first is placed a 
violet glass, in front of the second a green glass, in 
front of the third a red glass. What is the result? 
A white light. Why ? Because they meet on equal ■ 
terms^ and as no one of them is in a point of advan- 
tage no prisoners can be made and they must work in i! 

320 



Photography in Colours 

harmony. Next, turn down the violet lantern, and 
green and red produce a yellow, half-way between 
them ; turn down red and turn up violet, indigo- 
blue results. All the way through a compromise is 
effected. 

But supposing that the red and green glasses are 
put in front of the same lantern and the white light 
sent through them — where has the yellow gone to ? 
only a brownish-black light reaches the screen. The 
same thing happens with red and violet or green 
and violet. 

Prisoners have been taken, because one colour has 
had to demand passage from the other. Red says to 
green, '^ You want your rays to pass through me, but 
they shall not." Green retorts, *^ Very well ; but I 
myself have already cut off all but green rays, and if 
they don't pass you, nothing shall." And the conse- 
quence of the quarrel is practical darkness. 

The same phenomenon may be illustrated with blue 
and yellow. Lights of these two colours projected 
simultaneously on to a sheet yield white ; but white 
light sent through blue and yellow glass in succession 
produces a green light. Also, blue paint mixed with 
yellow gives green. In neither case is there darkness 
or entire cutting-off of colour, as in the case of Red + 
Violet or Green + Red. 

The reason is easy to see. 

Blue light is a compromise of violet and green ; 
321 X 



I 



Romance of Modern Invention 

yellow of green and red. Hence the two coloured 
lights falling on the screen make a combination which 
can be expressed as an addition sum. 

Blue = green + violet. 
Yellow = green + red. 



green + violet + red = white. 



But when light is passed through two coloured 
glasses in succession, or reflected from two layers of 
coloured paints, there are prisoners to be made. 

Blue passes green and violet only. 

Yellow passes green and red only. 

So violet is captured by yellow, and red by blue, 
green being free to pass on its way. 

There is, then, a great difference between the mixing 
of colours, which evokes any tendency to antagonism, 
and the adding of colours under such conditions that 
they meet on equal terms. The first process happens, 
as we have seen, when a ray of light is passed through 
colours in succession ; the second, when lights stream 
simultaneously on to an object. A white screen, being 
capable of reflecting any colour that falls on to it, will 
with equal readiness show green, red, violet, or a 
combination ; but a substance that is in white light 
red, or green, or violet will capture any other colour. 
So that if for the white screen we substituted a red 
one, violet or green falling simultaneously, would 
yield blackness, because red takes both prisoners ; if it 
were violet, green would be captured, and so on. 

322 



Photography in Colours 

From this follows another phenomenon : that 
whereas projection of two or more lights may yield 
white, white cannot result from any mixture of pig- 
ments. A person with a whole boxful of pamts could 
not get white were he to mix them in an infinitude of 
different ways ; but with the aid of his lanterns and 
as many differently coloured glasses the feat is easy 
enough. 

Any two colours which meet on equal terms to 
make white are called complementary colours. 

Thus yellow ( = red + green lights) is complementary 

of violet. 
Thus pink ( = red + violet lights) is complementary 

of green. 
Thus blue ( = violet + green lights) is complementary 

of red. 

This does not of course apply to mixture of paints, 
for complementary colours must act together, not in 
antagonism. 

If the reader has mastered these preliminary con- 
siderations he will have no difficulty in following out 
the following processes. 

[a) The Joly Process ^ invented by Professor Joly 
of Dublin. A glass plate is ruled across with fine 
parallel lines — 350 to the inch, we believe. These 
lines are filled in alternately with violet, green, and 
red matter, every third being violet, green or red 
as the case may be. The colour-screen is placed in 

323 



Romance of Modern Invention 

the camera in front of the sensitised plate. Upon an 
exposure being made, all light reflected from a red 
object (to select a colour) is allowed to pass through 
the red lines, but blocked by all the green and violet 
lines. So that on development that part of the 
negative corresponding to the position of the red 
object will be covered with dark lines separated by 
transparent belts of twice the breadth. From the 
negative a positive is printed, which of course shows 
transparent lines separated by opaque belts of twice 
their breadth. Now, suppose that we take the colour- 
screen and place it again in front of the plate in the 
position it occupied when the negative was taken, the 
red lines being opposite the transparent parts of the 
positive will be visible, but the green and violet being 
blocked by the black deposit behind them will not be 
noticeable. So that the object is represented by a 
number of red Hnes, which at a small distance appear 
to blend into a continuous whole. 

The violet and green affect the plate in a corre- 
sponding manner ; and composite colours will affect 
two sets of lines in varying degrees, the lights from 
the two sets blending in the eye. Thus yellow will 
obtain passage from both green and red, and when 
the screen is held up against the positive, the light 
streaming through the green and red lines will blend 
into yellow in the same manner as they would make 
yellow if projected by lanterns on to a screen. The 
same applies to all the colours. 

324 



Photography in Colours 

The advantage of the Joly process is that in it only 
one negative has to be made. 

{b) The Ives Process, — Mr. Frederic Eugene Ives, 
of Philadelphia, arrives at the same result as Professor 
Joly, but by an entirely different means. He takes 
three negatives of the same object, one through a 
violet-blue, another through a green, and a third 
through a red screen placed in front of the lens. 
The red negative is affected by red rays only ; the 
green by green rays only, and the violet-blue by 
violet-blue rays only, in the proper gradations. That 
is to say, each negative will have opaque patches 
v^rherever the rays of a certain kind strike it ; and 
the positive printed off will be by consequence tran- 
sparent at the same places. By holding the positive 
made from the red-screen negative against a piece of 
red glass, we should see light only in those parts of 
the positive which were transparent. Similarly with 
the green and violet positives if viewed through 
glasses of proper colour. The most ingenious part 
of Mr. Ives' method is the apparatus for presenting 
all three positives (lighted through their coloured 
glasses) to the eye simultaneously. When properly 
adjusted, so that their various parts exactly coincide, 
the eye blends the three together, seeing green, red, 
or violet separately, or blended in correct proportions. 
The Kromoscope, as the viewing apparatus is termed, 
contains three mirrors, projecting the reflections from 
the positives in a single line. As the three slides are 

325 



Romance of Modern Invention 

taken stereoscopically the result gives the impression 
of soUdity as well as of colour, and is most realistic. 

(c) The Sanger Shepherd Process, — This is employed 
mostly for lantern transparencies. As in the Ives 
process, three negatives and three transparent positives 
are made. But instead of coloured glasses being used 
to give effect to the positives the positives themselves 
are dyed, and placed one on the top of another in 
close contact, so that the light from the lantern passes 
through them in succession. We have therefore now 
quitted the realms of harmony for that of discord, 
in which prisoners are made ; and Mr. Shepherd has 
had to so arrange matters that in every case the 
capture of prisoners does not interfere with the final 
result, but conduces to it. 

In the first place, three negatives are secured 
through violet, green, and red screens. Positives are 
printed by the carbon process on thin celluloid films. 
The carbon film contains gelatine and bichromate of 
potassium. The light acts on the bichromate in such 
a way as to render the gelatine insoluble. The result 
is that, though in the positives there is at first no 
colour, patches of gelatine are left which will absorb 
dyes of various colours. The dyeing process requires 
a large amount of care and patience. 

Now, it would be a mistake to suppose that each 
positive is dyed in the colour of the screen through 
which its negative was taken. A moment's considera- 
tion will show us why. 

326 



Photography in Colours 

Let us assume that we are photographing a red 
object, a flower-pot for instance. The red negative 
represents the pot by a dark deposit. The positive 
printed off will consequently show clear glass at that 
spot, the unaffected gelatine being soluble. So that 
to dye the plate would be to make all red except the 
very part which we require red ; and on holding it 
up to the light the flower-pot would appear as a white 
transparent patch. 

How then is the problem to be solved ? 

Mr. Shepherd's process is based upon an ordered 
system of prisoner-taking. Thus, as red in this par- 
ticular case is wanted it will be attained by the other 
two positives (which are placed in contact with the 
red positive, so that all three coincide exactly), 
robbing white light of all but its red rays. 

Now if the other positives were dyed green and 
violet, what would happen ? They would not pro- 
duce red, but by robbing white light between them 
of red, green, and violet, would produce blackness, 
and we should be as far as ever from our object. 

The positives are therefore dyed, not in the same 
colours as the screens used when the negatives were 
made, but in their complementary colours, i.e. as ex- 
plained above, those colours which added to the 
colour of the screen would make white. 

The red screen negative is therefore dyed (violet + 
green) = blue. The green negative (red -|- violet) = 
pink. The violet negative (red -h green) = yellow. 

327 



Romance of Modern Invention 

To return to our flower-pot. The red-screen 
positive (dyed blue) is, as we saw, quite transparent 
where the pot should be. But behind the trans- 
parent gap are the pink and yellow positives. 

White light ( = violet + green + red) passes through 
pink ( = violet + red), and has to surrender all its 
green rays. The violet and red pass on aad en- 
counter yellow ( = green + red), and violet falls a 
victim to green, leaving red unmolested. 

If the flower-pot had been white all three positives 
would have contained clear patches unaffected by the 
three dyes, and the white light would have been un- 
obstructed. The gradations and mixtures of colours 
are obtained by two of the screens being influenced 
by the colour of the object. Thus, if it were crimson, 
both violet and red-screen negatives would be affected 
by the rays reflected by it, and the green screen 
negative not at all. Hence the pink positive would 
be pink, the yellow clear, and the blue clear. 

White light passing through is robbed by pink of 
green, leaving red -|- violet = crimson. 

Colour Printing. 

Printing in ink colours is done in a manner very 
similar to the Sanger Shepherd lantern slide process. 
Three blocks are made, by the help of photography, 
through violet, green and red screens, and etched 
away with acid, like ordinary half-tone black-and- 

328 



Colour Photography 

white blocks. The three blocks have applied to them 
ink of a complementary colour to the screen they 
represent, just as in the Sanger Shepherd process the 
positives were dyed. The three inks are laid over one 
another on the paper by the blocks, the relieved parts 
of which (corresponding to the undissolved gelatine 
of the Shepherd positives) only take the ink. White 
light being reflected through layers of coloured inks 
is treated in just the same way as it would be were it 
transmitted through coloured glasses, yielding all the 
colours in approximately correct gradations. 



329 



LIGHTING. 

The production of lire by artificial means has been 
reasonably regarded as the greatest invention in the 
history of the human race. Prior to the day when a 
man was first able to call heat from the substances 
about him the condition of our ancestors must have 
been wretched indeed. Raw food was their portion ; 
metals mingled with other matter mocked their efforts 
to separate them ; the cold of winter drove them to 
the recesses of gloomy caverns, where night reigned 
perpetual. 

The production of fire also, of course, entailed the 
creation of light, which in its developments has been 
of an importance second only to the improved 
methods of heating. So accustomed are we to our 
candles, our lamps, our gas-jets, our electric lights, 
that it is hard for us to imagine what an immense 
effect their sudden and complete removal would have 
on our existence. At times, when floods, explosions, 
or other accidents cause a temporary stoppage of the 
gas or current supply, a town may for a time be 
plunged into darkness ; but this only for a short 
period, the distress of which can be alleviated by 

330 



Lighting 



recourse to paraffin lamps, or the more homely 
candle. 

The earliest method of illumination was the rough- 
and-ready one of kindling a pile of brushwood or 
logs. The light produced was very uncertain and 
feeble, but possibly sufficient for the needs of the 
cave-dweller. With the advance of civilisation arose 
an increasing necessity for a more steady illuminant, 
discovered in vegetable oils, burned in lamps of 
various designs. Lamps have been found in old 
Egyptian and Etruscan tombs constructed thousands 
of years ago. These lamps do not differ essentially 
from those in use to-day, being reservoirs fitted with 
a channel to carry a wick. 

But probably from the difficulty of procuring oil, 
lamps fell into comparative disuse, or rather were 
almost unknown, in many countries of Europe as 
late as the fifteenth century; when the cottage and 
baronial hall were alike lit by the blazing torch 
fixed into an iron sconce or bracket on the wall. 

The rushlight, consisting of a peeled rush, coated 
by repeated dipping into a vessel of melted fat, made 
a feeble effort to dispel the gloom of long winter 
evenings. This was succeeded by the tallow and 
more scientifically made wax candle, which last still 
maintains a certain popularity. 

How our grandmothers managed to "keep their 
eyes " as they worked at stitching by the light of a 
couple of candles, whose advent was the event of the 

331 



Romance of Modern Invention 

evening, is now a mystery. To-day we feel aggrieved 
if our lamps are not of many candle-power, and protest 
that our sight will be ruined by what one hundred and 
fifty years ago would have seemed a marvel of illumi- 
nation. In the case of lighting necessity has been the 
mother of invention. The tendency of modern life is 
to turn night into day. We go to bed late and we get up 
late ; this is perhaps foolish, but still we do it. And, 
what is more, we make increasing use of places, such 
as basements, underground tunnels, and " tubes," to 
which the light of heaven cannot penetrate during 
any of the daily twenty-four hours. 

The nineteenth century saw a wonderful advance 
in the science of illumination. As early as 1804 the 
famous scientist, Sir Humphrey Davy, discovered the 
electric arc, presently to be put to such universal use. 
About the same time gas was first manufactured and 
led about in pipes. But before electricity for lighting 
purposes had been rendered sufficiently cheap the 
discovery of the huge oil deposits in Pennsylvania 
flooded the world with an inexpensive illuminant. 
As early as the thirteenth century Marco Polo, the 
explorer, wrote of a natural petroleum spring at Baku, 
on the Caspian Sea : " There is a fountain of great 
abundance, inasmuch as a thousand shiploads might 
be taken from it at one time. This oil is not good to 
use with food, but it is good to burn ; and is also used 
to anoint camels that have the mange. People come 
from vast distances to fetch it, for in all other coun- 

332 



Lighting 

tries there is no oil." His last words have been 
confuted by the American oil-fields, yielding many 
thousands of barrels a day — often in such quantities 
that the oil runs to waste for lack of a buyer. 

The rivals for pre-eminence in lighting to-day are 
electricity, coal gas, petroleum, and acetylene gas. 
The two former have the advantage of being easily 
turned on at will, like water ; the third is more gener- 
ally available. 

The invention of the dynamo by Gramme in 1870 
marks the beginning of an epoch in the history of 
illumination. With its aid current of such intensity 
as to constantly bridge an air-gap between carbon 
points could be generated for a fraction of the cost 
entailed by other previous methods. Paul Jabloch- 
koff devised in 1876 his *' electric candle " — a couple 
of parallel carbon rods separated by an insulating 
medium that wasted away under the influence of heat 
at the same rate as the rods. The ^' candles " were 
used with rapidly-alternating currents, as the positive 
^^ pole " wasted twice as quickly as the negative. 
During the Paris Exhibition of 1878 visitors to Paris 
were delighted by the new method of illumination 
installed in some of the principal streets and theatres. 

The arc-lamp of to-day, such as we see in our 
streets, factories, and railway stations, is a modifica- 
tion of M. Jablochkoff's principle. Carbon rods are 
used, but they are pointed towards each other, the 
distance between their extremities being kept constant 

333 



Romance of Modern Invention 

by ingenious mechanical contrivances. Arc-lamps of 
all types labour under the disadvantage of being, by 
necessity, very powerful ; and were they only avail- 
able the employment of electric lighting would be 
greatly restricted. As it is, we have, thanks to the 
genius of Mr. Edison, a means of utilising current in 
but small quantities to yield a gentler light. The 
glow-lamp, as it is called, is so familiar to us that we 
ought to know something of its antecedents. 

In the arc-lamp the electric circuit is broken at the 
point where light is required. In glow or incandes- 
cent lamps the current is only hindered by the inter- 
position of a bad conductor of electricity, which must 
also be incombustible. Just as a current of water flows 
in less volume as the bore of a pipe is reduced, and 
requires that greater pressure shall be exerted to force 
a constant amount through the pipe, so is an electric 
current choked by its conductor being reduced in size 
or altered in nature. Edison in 1878 employed as the 
current-choker a very fine platinum wire, which, having 
a melting temperature of 3450 degrees Fahrenheit, 
allowed a very white heat to be generated in it. The 
wire was enclosed in a glass bulb almost entirely ex- 
hausted of air by a mercury-pump before being sealed. 
But it was found that even platinum could not always 
withstand the heating effect of a strong current ; and 
accordingly Edison looked about for some less com- 
bustible material. Mr. ]. W. Swan of Newcastle-on- 
Tyne had already experimented with carbon filaments 

334 



Lighting 

made from cotton threads steeped in sulphuric acid. 
Edison and Swan joined hands to produce the present 
well-known lamp, ^^The Ediswan," the filament of 
which is a bamboo fibre, carbonised during the ex- 
haustion of air in the bulb to one-millionth of an 
atmosphere pressure by passing the electric current 
through it. These bamboo filaments are very elastic 
and capable of standing almost any heat. 

Glow-lamps are made in all sizes — from tiny globes 
small enough to top a tie-pin to powerful lamps of 
1000 candle-power. Their independence] of atmo- 
spheric air renders them most convenient in places 
where other forms of illumination would be dangerous 
or impossible ; e.g, in coal mines, and under water 
during diving operations. By their aid great im- 
provements have been effected in the lighting of 
theatres, which require a quick switching on and 
off of light. They have also been used in connection 
with minute cameras to explore the recesses of the 
human body. In libraries they illuminate without 
injuring the books. In living rooms they do not 
foul the air or blacken the ceiling like oil or gas 
burners. The advantages of the " Edison lamp " are, 
in short, multitudinous. 

Cheapness of current to work them is, of course, 
a very important condition of their economy. In 
some small country villages the cottages are lit by 
electricity even in England, but these are generally 
within easy reach of water power. Mountainous 

335 



Romance of Modern Invention 

districts, such as Norway and Switzerland, with their 
rushing streams and high water-falls, are peculiarly 
suited for electric lighting : the cost of which is 
mainly represented by the expense of the generating 
apparatus and the motive power. 

One of the greatest engineering undertakings in 
the world is connected with the manufacture of 
electric current. Niagara, the '^Thunder of the Waters " 
as the Indians called it, has been harnessed to pro- 
duce electrical energy, convertible at will into motion, 
heat, or light. The falls pass all the water overflow- 
ing from nearly 100,000 square miles of lakes, which 
in turn drain a far larger area of territory. Upwards 
of 10,000 cubic yards of water leap over the falls 
every second, and are hurled downwards for more 
than 200 feet, with an energy of eight or nine 
million horse-power ! In 1886 a company determined 
to turn some of this huge force to account. They 
bought up land on the American bank, and cut a 
tunnel 6700 yards long, beginning a mile and a half 
above the falls, and terminating below them. Water 
drawn from the river thunders into the tunnel 
through a number of wheel pits, at the bottom of 
each of which is a water-turbine developing 5000 
horse-power. The united force of the turbines is 
said to approximate 100,000 horse-power ; and as 
if this were but a small thing, the same Company 
has obtained concessions to erect plant on the 
Canadian bank to double or treble the total power. 

336 



Lighting 



So cheaply is current thus produced that the 
Company is in a position to supply it at rates which 
appear small compared with those that prevail in this 
country. A farthing will there purchase what would 
here cost from ninepence to a shilhng. Under such 
conditions the electric lamp need fear no com- 
petitor. 

But in less favoured districts gas and petroleum 
are again holding up their heads. 

Both coal and oil-gas develop a great amount of 
heat in proportion to the light they yield. The 
hydrogen they contain in large quantities burns, 
when pure, with an almost invisible flame, but more 
hotly than any other known gas. The particles of 
carbon also present in the flame are heated to white- 
ness by the hydrogen, but they are not sufficient 
in number to convert more than a fraction of the 
heat into light. 

A German, Auer von Welsbach, conceived the idea 
of suspending round the flame a circular ^^ mantle " 
of woven cotton steeped in a solution of certain rare 
earths (e.g, lanthanum, yttrium, zirconium), to arrest 
the heat and compel it to produce bright incandescence 
in the arresting substance. 

With the same gas consumption a Welsbach burner 
yields seven or more times the light of an ordinary 
batswing burner. The light itself is also of a more 
pleasant description, being well supplied with the 
blue rays of the spectrum. 

337 Y 



Romance of Modern Invention 

The mantle is used with other systems than the 
ordinary gas-jet. Recently two methods of illumination 
have been introduced in which the source of illum- 
ination is supplied under pressure. 

The high-pressure incandescent gas installations of 
Mr. William Sugg supply gas to burners at five or 
six times the ordinary pressure of the mains. The 
effect is to pulverise the gas as it issues from the 
nozzle of the burners, and, by rendering it more 
inflammable, to increase its heating power until the 
surrounding mantle glows with a very brilliant and 
white light of great penetration. Gas is forced 
through the pipes connected with the lamps by 
hydraulic rams working gas-pumps, which alternately 
suck in and expel the gas under a pressure of twelve 
inches (i.e. a pressure sufficient to maintain a column 
of water twelve inches high). The gas under this 
pressure passes into a cylinder of a capacity con- 
siderably greater than the capacity of the pumps. 
This cylinder neutralises the shock of the rams, when 
the stroke changes from up- to downstroke, and 
vice versa. On the top of the cylinder is fixed a 
governor consisting of a strong leathern gas-holder, 
which has a stroke of about three inches, and actuates 
a lever which opens and closes the valve through 
which the supply of water to the rams flows, and 
reduces the flow of the water when it exceeds ten 
or twelve inches pressure, according to circumstances. 
The gas-holder of the governor is lifted by the 

338 



Lighting 



pressure of the gas in the cyhnder, which passes 
through a small opening from the cylinder to the 
governor so as not to cause any sudden rise or fall 
of the gas-holder. By this means a nearly constant 
pressure is maintained ; and from the outlet of the 
cylinder the gas passes to another governor sufficient 
to supply the number of lights the apparatus is de- 
signed for, and to maintain the pressure without 
variation whether all or a few lamps are in action. 
For very large installations steam is used. 

Each burner develops 300 candle-power. A double- 
cylinder steam-engine working a double pump sup- 
plies 300 of these burners, giving a total lighting- 
power of 90,000 candles. As compared with the 
cost of low-pressure incandescent lighting the high- 
pressure system is very economical, being but half as 
expensive for the same amount of light. 

It is largely used in factories and railway stations. 
It may be seen on the Tower Bridge, Blackfriars 
Bridge, Euston Station, and in the terminus of the 
Great Central Railway, St. John's Wood. 

Perhaps the most formidable rival to the electric 
arc-lamp for the lighting of large spaces and buildings 
is the Kitson Oil Lamp, now so largely used in 
America and this country. 

The lamp is usually placed on the top of an iron 
post similar to an ordinary gas-light standard. At 
the bottom of the post is a chamber containing a 
steel reservoir capable of holding from five to forty 

339 



Romance of Modern Invention 

gallons of petroleum. Above the oil is an air-space 
into which air has been forced at a pressure of fifty 
lbs. to the square inch, to act as an elastic cushion 
to press the oil into the burners. The oil passes 
upwards through an extremely fine tube scarcely 
thicker than electric incandescent wires to a pair of 
cross tubes above the burners. The top one of 
these acts as a filter to arrest any foreign matter that 
finds its way into the oil ; the lower one, in diameter 
about the size of a lead-pencil and eight inches long, 
is immediately above the mantles, the heat from which 
vaporises the small quantity of oil in the tube. The 
oil-gas then passes through a tiny hole no larger than 
a needle-point into an open mixing-tube where suffi- 
cient air is drawn in for supporting combustion. The 
mixture then travels down to the mantle, inside which 
it burns. 

An ingenious device has lately been added to the 
system for facilitating the lighting of the lamp. At 
the base of the lamp-post a small hermetically-closed 
can containing petroleum ether is placed, and con- 
nected by very fine copper-tubing with a burner 
under the vaporising tube. When the lamp is to be 
lit a small rubber bulb is squeezed, forcing a quantity 
of the ether vapour into the burner, where it is ignited 
by a platinum wire rendered incandescent by a cur- 
rent passing from a small accumulator also placed 
in the lamp-post. The burner rapidly heats the 
vaporising tube, and in a few moments oil-gas is 

340 



Lighting 



passing into the mantles, where it is ignited by the 
burner. 

So economical is the system that a light of looo 
candle-power is produced by the combustion of about 
half-a-pint of petroleum per hour ! Comparisons are 
proverbially odious, but in many cases very instruc- 
tive. Professor V. B. Lewes thus tabulates the results 
of experiments with various illuminants : — 

Cost of looo candles per hour. 

s. d. 



Electricity 


, Per unit, 3jd. 








}j 


. Incandescent, 


, 


I 


2 


jj 


. Arc, . 




o 


3l 


Coal-gas 


. Flat flame, 


. 


I 


6 


n 


. Incandescent, , 


. 


o 


^i 


JJ 


high pressure, 


o 


If 


Oil . 


. Lamp (oil at 8d. per 


gall.), . 


o 


7i 


JJ 


. Incandescent lamp, 


. 


o 


2i 


JJ 


. Kitson lamp, 


. 


o 


I 



Petroleum, therefore, at present comes in a very 
good first in England. 

The system that we have noticed at some length 
has been adapted for lighthouse use, as it gives a 
light peculiarly fog-piercing. It is said to approxi- 
mate most closely to ordinary sunlight, and on that 
account has been found very useful for the taking 
of photographs at night-time. The portability of the 
apparatus makes it popular with contractors ; and the 
fact that its installation requires no tearing up of the 

341 



Romance of Modern Invention 

streets is a great recommendation with the long-suffer- 
ing public of some of our large towns. 

Another very powerful light is produced by burn- 
ing the gas given off by carbide of calcium when 
immersed in water. Acetylene gas, as it is called, is 
now widely used in cycle and motor lamps, which 
emit a shaft of light sometimes painfully dazzling to 
those who have to face it. In Germany the gas is 
largely employed in village streets ; and in this 
country it is gaining ground as an illuminant of 
country houses, being easy to manufacture — in 
small gasometers of a few cubic yards capacity — 
and economical to burn. 

Well supplied as we are with lights, we find, never- 
theless, that savants are constantly in pursuit of an 
ideal illuminant. 

From the sun are borne to us through the ether 
light waves, heat waves, magnetic waves, and other 
waves of which we have as yet but a dim perception. 
The waves are commingled, and we are unable to sepa- 
rate them absolutely. And as soon as we try to copy 
the sun's effects as a source of heat or light we find 
the same difficulty. The fire that cooks our food gives 
off a quantity of useless light-waves ; the oil-lamp that 
brightens one's rooms gives off a quantity of useless, 
often obnoxious, heat. 

The ideal illuminant and the ideal heating agent 
must be one in which the required waves are in a 
great majority. Unfortunately, even with our most 

342 



Lighting 

perfected methods, the production of light is accom- 
panied by the exertion of a disproportionate amount 
of wasted energy. In the ordinary incandescent lamp, 
to take an instance, only 5 or 6 per cent, of the energy 
put into it as electricity results in light. The rest is 
dispelled in overcoming the resistance of the filament 
and agitating the few air-molecules in the bulb. To 
this we must add the fact that the current itself re- 
presents but a fraction of the power exerted to pro- 
duce it. The following words of Professor Lodge 
are to the point on this subject: — 

" Look at the furnaces and boilers of a steam-engine 
driving a group of dynamos, and estimate the energy 
expended ; and then look at the incandescent fila- 
ments of the lamps excited by them, and estimate 
how much of their radiated energy is of real service 
to the eye. It will be as the energy of a pitch-pipe 
to an entire orchestra. 

" It is not too much to say that a boy turning a 
handle could, if his energy were properly directed, 
produce quite as much real light as is produced by 
all this mass of mechanism and consumption of 
material." ^ 

The most perfect light in nature is probably that 
of the glow-worm and firefly — a phosphorescent or 
*' cold " light, illuminating without combustion owing 
to the absence of all waves but those of the requisite 

^ Professor Oliver Lodge, in a lecture to the Ashmolean Society, 3rd 
June 1889. 

343 



Romance of Modern Invention 

frequency. The task before mankind is to imitate the 
glow-worm in the production of isolated light-waves. 

The nearest approach to its achievement has oc- 
curred in the laboratories of Mr. Nikola Tesla, the 
famous electrician. By means of a special oscillator, 
invented by himself, he has succeeded in throwing the 
ether particles into such an intense state of vibration 
that they become luminous. In other words, he has 
created vibrations of the enormous rapidity of light, 
and this without the creation of heat waves to any 
appreciable extent. 

An incandescent lamp, mounted on a powerful 
coil, is lit without contact by ether waves transmitted 
from a cable running round the laboratory, or bulbs 
and tubes containing highly rarefied gases are placed 
between two large plate-terminals arranged on the 
end walls. As soon as the bulbs are held in the path 
of the currents passing through the ether from plate 
to plate they become incandescent, shining with a 
light which, though weak, is sufficiently strong to 
take photographs by with a long exposure. Tesla 
has also invented what he calls a " sanitary " light, 
as he claims for it the germ-killing properties of sun- 
shine. The lamps are glass tubes several feet long, 
bent into spirals or other convolutions, and filled 
before sealing with a certain gas. The ends of the 
glass tube are coated with metal and provided with 
hooks to connect the lamp with an electric current. 
The gas becomes luminous under the influence of 

344 



Lighting 



current, but not strictly incandescent, as there is 
very little heat engendered. This means economy 
in use. The lamps are said to be cheaply manu- 
factured, but as yet they are not '^ on the market." 
We shall hear more of them in the near future, 
which will probably witness no more interesting de- 
velopment than that of lighting. 

Before closing this chapter a few words may be 
said about new heating methods. Gas stoves are 
becoming increasingly popular by reason of the ease 
w^th which they can be put in action and made to 
maintain an even temperature. But the most up- 
to-date heating apparatus is undoubtedly electrical. 
Utensils of all sorts are fitted with very thin heating 
strips (formed by the deposition of precious metals, 
such as gold, platinum, &c., on exceedingly thin 
mica sheets), through which are passed powerful 
currents from the mains. The resistance of the strip 
converts the electromotive energy of the current into 
heat, which is either radiated into the air or into 
water for cookery, &c. 

In all parts of the house the electric current may be 
made to do work besides that of lighting. It warms 
the passages by means of special radiators — replacing 
the clumsy coal and " stuffy " gas stove ; in the kitchen 
it boils, stews, and fries, heats the flat-irons and ovens; 
in the breakfast room boils the kettle, keeps the dishes, 
teapots, and coffee-pots warm ; in the bathroom heats 
the water ; in the smoking-room replaces matches ; in 

345 



Romance of Modern Invention 

the bedroom electrifies footwarmers, and — last wonder 
of all — even makes possible an artificially warm bed- 
quilt to heat the chilled limbs of invalids ! 

The great advantage of electric heating is the free- 
dom from all smell and smoke that accompanies it. 
But until current can be provided at cheaper rates 
than prevail at present, its employment will be chiefly 
restricted to the houses of the wealthy or to large 
establishments, such as hotels, where it can be used 
on a sufficient scale to be comparatively economical. 



THE END 



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